Hands up those who do not use computer technology. Ok, put them down, I can see you took your hands off the keyboard…. or your mouse. Computer technology has grown exponentially. Life without a computer or a device with computer applications is unthinkable. A day without a mobile phone or email can leave a poor person feeling baffled and confused. Some say this is a condition known as MAD COWS (Mobile Distress and Computer Operator Withdrawal Symptoms)…With a suitable phone and digital television set-up you can even record your favourite programs whilst in the car.
This growth may seem alarming. However this is not the case. Computer specifications from RAM storage to hard drive capacity have increased along the same graph that predicts the ability for computer chip makers to double the number of transistors on an integrated circuit board every two years. Commonly known in the computer industry as Moore’s Law this growth in computing ability is actually predictable. Recently though, there have been murmurs that the Law might become a busted flush. As an industry commandment such an event is unthinkable and has led to more extreme ways to keep pace. One method using conventional technology is chip-stacking. Essentially, this moves chip layout from a flat plane into three dimensions and by grouping chips together like tower blocks, reduce the distance information travels between them 1000 times. This method of compacting allows a smaller chip size whilst increasing performance. These 3-D chips are due to be in production this year.
Yet still Silicon Valley tremors with the fear that the Law will run out, either due to the inability to get small enough, or innovations finally being exhausted. In addition to chip-stacking there are five more avenues being explored to keep to the self-fulfilling target of exponential transistor growth. One of these is straying into nanotechnology with the potential endgame identified by Moore himself, as the atomic level in three or four generations.
This is where everything twists and divergent paths emerge. The holy grail of many tech heads is the all-in-one device. Some could point to the iPhone as the grandfather of such a pocket marvel. A phone, computer with wireless access and full office applications, portable entertainment including Digital TV, camera and video recorder all the size of a credit card. The problem with Moore’s Law is it is a theoretical ideal. Translated into the real world most people struggle to keep up, as indeed does software and usage of all those circuit components. That’s why multi function devices are on the rise. They tap into the rest of the components on an integrated circuit board that are usually passive within the system under Moore’s Law.
There is the other path. Which stands, akin to Kilimanjaro, over the current plane of computer physics. Scientists are already working on versions of the behemoth in their labs. Terrifyingly, one of the scientists involved in the experimental builds said that if one of these new computers were operational now, on the Internet, nothing would be safe as the encryption algorithms would be next to useless. They are quantum computers. By harnessing the power of quantum mechanics bits become qubits. Where a bit used to be 1 or 0 a qubit can be 1, 0 or 1/0, unleashing computing power that can solve problems, which take an almost infinite time on current computers, in seconds.
However, those of you suddenly closing your Paypal accounts relax. A practical quantum system is in the time scale of decades away and home quantum computers will be some time after that. So those missing pounds from your account really were spent on buying some late night, alcohol induced, must have off eBay.
The gauntlet has been thrown down as to what to do with all the power possible. 1TB hard disk space is now available so in the future a convergence of quantum technology applications and multifunctional systems…
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