Toward Achieving One Million Times Increase in Computing Efficiency

www.sciencedaily.com...

Modern-day computers are based on logic circuits using semiconductor transistors. To increase computing power, smaller transistors are required. Moore's Law states that the number of transistors that can fit on an integrated circuit should double every two years due to scaling. But as transistors reach atomic dimensions, achieving this feat is becoming increasingly difficult. Among the most significant challenges is heat dissipation from circuits created using today's standard semiconductor technology, complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS), which give off more heat as more transistors are added. This makes CMOS incapable of supporting the computers of the future. Engineers are therefore seeking alternatives to CMOS that would allow for highly efficient computer logic circuits that generate much less heat. Northwestern University researchers may have found a solution: an entirely new logic circuit family based on magnetic semiconductor devices. The advance could lead to logic circuits up to 1 million times more power-efficient than today's. Unlike traditional integrated circuits, which consist of a collection of miniature transistors operating on a single piece of semiconductor, the so-called "spin logic circuits" utilize the quantum physics phenomenon of spin, a fundamental property of the electron. "What we've developed is a device that can be configured in a logic circuit that is capable of performing all the necessary Boolean logic and can be cascaded to develop sophisticated function units," said Bruce W. Wessels, Walter P. Murphy Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, one of the paper's authors. "We are using 'spintronic' logic devices to successfully perform the same operations as a conventional CMOS circuits but with fewer devices and more computing power."

I have nothing more to say than this...

We approach a day in which our understanding of life and death, the living and the nonliving, the spirit and the corporeal, and all other dualities existing in ignorance will be shattered whilst the aspects of truth will slowly be revealed.

Something tells me this great "shift" everyone keeps mentioning is happening before our eyes and we simply ignore it in search of something more "divine" in appearance. Is not the universal mind of God made apparent in or ability to create and extend past our mere physical bodies? Compounding and exponentially raising the speed and performance of Computing power is merely our first step of stepping into the divine. Yes, I know, I sound as if I am making this out to be more than it is; however, the truth is found in just the opposite.

reply to post by TheOneElectric


it is an inevitability
the universe is fractal in nature "as above so below"

1million times increase? Imagine that technology being released today. It would take us decades truly utilize that kind of power. Either way this news means nothing. This technology may never be released. Their are 100's of grate working idea's on how to improve our computing power. My favorite is light computing, light is faster then electricity and cheaper.

reply to post by Infi8nity


I'll agree with you that it means nothing...only because within the next 10 years, something better and implementable will be in place.

Trust me on this one.

Originally posted by TheOneElectric
reply to post by Infi8nity

 

I'll agree with you that it means nothing...only because within the next 10 years, something better and implementable will be in place.

Trust me on this one.

I second this, AND the thoughts you made at the end of your OP. Good thread S+F.

reply to post by TechUnique


I saw your thread on the 23 incredible technologies you'll see by 2021

To it I said, "Maybe we were born at just the right time."

It feel good, man. It feels good.

As a futurist, yes computers and digital technology will lead to some great things. The potential is great, both for good and for abuse, unfortunately.

Civilization will go 1 of 3 ways:

1) No advance due to humans killing themselves first / losing technology / the elite refusing to let it advance.

2) The tech becomes widely available and human civilization flourishes and reaches its greatest potential yet.

3) The tech becomes available and acknowledged, but is kept in the hands of the wealthy, creating a real-life cyberpunk dystopia in the future.

Which way will it go?

It is a fantastic time~ We will have the power to do so many amazing things at the average man's finger tips... ohh crap, I don't know if the average man should have the power to shut down entire infrastructures and possibly send millions into chaos at the touch of a few buttons... You know I really think this should be an athiest's primary argument: Keep God in your life and you will use technology to destroy all those who oppose you.... and technology is only getting easier to get so we better hurry up.

Gawd, imagine if Anon was religious, they would be down right malicious.

reply to post by OrphenFire


I think civilization will divide between those who embrace self-guided evolution and those who don't. The differences may eventually become so vast that we become distinct species, even segregating ourselves from each other to a point.

The path was laid out infront of us when the computer era started. Now that moore's law is working its magic, sooner or later, duality will take over.

Read the book "Physics of the Future" Great book, good insights and some things are already happening. The book was released in 2011.

Wether duality is good, bad or neutral will depend heavily on our ability to change our current course.

Originally posted by OrphenFire
As a futurist, yes computers and digital technology will lead to some great things. The potential is great, both for good and for abuse, unfortunately.

Civilization will go 1 of 3 ways:

1) No advance due to humans killing themselves first / losing technology / the elite refusing to let it advance.

2) The tech becomes widely available and human civilization flourishes and reaches its greatest potential yet.

3) The tech becomes available and acknowledged, but is kept in the hands of the wealthy, creating a real-life cyberpunk dystopia in the future.

Which way will it go?

How about

4) Tech keeps on getting better, but at a more and more limited pace as the atomic limits start slowing down Moore's law. Already there is no more "free bandwidth" as existing technology can come close to exploiting the fundamental limits of infomation theory. There will never be any more big breakthrough as quantum computing remains a a very expensive large-government-lab technology. Human civilization neither flourishes nor completely collapses, it limps along. Problems in the future grind slowly worse from overpopulation and resource consumption, because these relate to large-scale macrophysics---counting bulk of atoms in useful configurations vs useless ones---rather than improvements from more cleverness in smaller spaces. There is no Moore's law for energy, and never will be. If global warming stays to just "bad" as opposed to catastrophic, life in 2500 will be pretty similar to life in 2000, but somewhat poorer as nothing easily replaces liquid hydrocarbons for personal transportation.

The winners, relatively, will be the ones who butch up and accept fission reactors (built in modules in factories, not on-site) even though there are accidents of moderate magnitude every 30-40 years, usually due to corruption in the regulatory agencies.