Driving Moore's Law
A 1965 internal paper written by Gordon Moore, Director of R&D for Fairchild semiconductor entitled, "The Future of Integrated Electronics" predicted "the development of integrated electronics for perhaps the next ten years." Based upon an extrapolation that relied upon data from 1959 to 1964, Moore projected that the number of components per integrated chip would double every 12 months.
A decade later, integrated circuit technology had advanced by leaps and bounds to the point that these predictions were validated at an IEEE conference. At the 1975 conference, Moore, who had become co-founder and President of Intel, revisited the data and slowed the progression to doubling every 18 months, resulting in his findings being dubbed "Moore's Law." Upon reviewing his projections again in 1995, Moore commented "The current prediction is that this is not going to stop soon."
Moore was right in each case.
The initial projection Moore made proved true as a result of rapid advances in integrated circuit technology leading to the creation of the microprocessor. His revisited 1975 projection was carried by the emergence of the microcomputer market. The 1995 reaffirmed projection benefited from advances, or better yet shortcuts, in the software market driven by ever increasing user expectations.
Since the release of the graphical user interface, software has pushed hardware to its limits, resulting in more advances in both CPU and GPU technology. A vast majority of the push resulted from poor design and inefficient coding techniques that focus more on making the programmer's job easier than producing optimized code. However, user demands for "life-like" and evolving new experiences drive the trends.
Apple has long been one of the key "drivers" of technology, pushing the limits of hardware in both miniaturization and performance in order to create the unique experience its users have come to expect. The latest MacBook Pro further drives this point home as the article link below demonstrates.
Retina MacBook Pro Pushes the Limits of its Graphics Capabilities
http://www.macrumors.com/2012/06/29/retina-macbook-pro-pushes-the-limits-of-its-graphics-capabilities/
. . .
A decade later, integrated circuit technology had advanced by leaps and bounds to the point that these predictions were validated at an IEEE conference. At the 1975 conference, Moore, who had become co-founder and President of Intel, revisited the data and slowed the progression to doubling every 18 months, resulting in his findings being dubbed "Moore's Law." Upon reviewing his projections again in 1995, Moore commented "The current prediction is that this is not going to stop soon."
Moore was right in each case.
The initial projection Moore made proved true as a result of rapid advances in integrated circuit technology leading to the creation of the microprocessor. His revisited 1975 projection was carried by the emergence of the microcomputer market. The 1995 reaffirmed projection benefited from advances, or better yet shortcuts, in the software market driven by ever increasing user expectations.
Since the release of the graphical user interface, software has pushed hardware to its limits, resulting in more advances in both CPU and GPU technology. A vast majority of the push resulted from poor design and inefficient coding techniques that focus more on making the programmer's job easier than producing optimized code. However, user demands for "life-like" and evolving new experiences drive the trends.
Apple has long been one of the key "drivers" of technology, pushing the limits of hardware in both miniaturization and performance in order to create the unique experience its users have come to expect. The latest MacBook Pro further drives this point home as the article link below demonstrates.
Retina MacBook Pro Pushes the Limits of its Graphics Capabilities
http://www.macrumors.com/2012/06/29/retina-macbook-pro-pushes-the-limits-of-its-graphics-capabilities/
. . .
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