Scientists Pave Way For 25nm CPUs 82
arcticstoat writes in with word that scientists at the Space Nanotechnology Laboratory at MIT have found a new way of extending Moore's law into the future — they have succeeded in etching a grid of 25nm lines into a silicon wafer. The article notes that this technique could be used for writing the grid on which chips are laid down, but that the electronic elements would have to be written using more complex techniques. "[Researchers] created an interference pattern using light from a laser with a wavelength of 351 nm. The pattern consists of alternating light and dark zones repeating every 200 nm. This allowed them to etch 25-nm lines into a silicon wafer, each 175 nm apart. They then repeated the process three times, each time shifting the interference pattern by 50 nm and etching another 25-nm groove. The resulting grid has alternating 25-nm stripes and grooves..."
Moore's Law is not restricted to silicon (Score:3, Insightful)
Though Gordon Moore certainly developed his law around the silicon chip, the interesting thing about his law is that it is retroactive and not restricted to silicon, leading to the possibility that even if there is a real limit to silicon, something else will come along to replace it and keep the law going through another iteration. Whether that turns out to be holographic, 3-D, biological, or whatever is anyone's guess at this point.
If you start out with the Hollerith census counting machines developed for the 1890 census (the ones that used cards the size of dollar bills because they had a bunch of dollar bill boxes, hench the size of the punched card and the 80-column screen), then move to electric relay switches, then to vacuum tubes, then to transistors, then to silicon, the whole thing is an exponential curve with a doubling every 18-24 months.
Every time I hear someone saying, "We're eaching the end of Moore's Law," I think: Not.
Re:Moore's Law is not restricted to silicon (Score:3, Insightful)
It will end. It is just a question of when.
Oh great... (Score:2, Insightful)
All this so we can fit another 10 or 20 cores that programmers won't use... Or was that too bitter?