Related Classe: EECS 370
Moore’s Law
The number of transistors on a single microchip doubles every two years.
This is usually accomplished by making transistors smaller. However, we have already reached a point where transistors are sized at the scale of atoms. Clearly, a single transistor can not be smaller than an atom, so there will come a point soon where we physically can’t make transistors any smaller.
Dennard Scaling
As transistors get smaller, their power density stays constant.
This is saying that, when given a certain area of microchip, the power consumed in that same area remained roughly the same as the number of processors on the chip increased.
However, in the Mid-2000s, this trend ended. This is because of Quantum Leaping, which leads to power leaking and excess power consumption.