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The Ultimate Limit of Moore's Law

BuzzSkyline writes "Physicists have found that there is an ultimate limit to the speed of calculations, regardless of any improvements in technology. According to the researchers who found the computation limit, the bound 'poses an absolute law of nature, just like the speed of light.' While many experts expect technological limits to kick in eventually, engineers always seem to find ways around such roadblocks. If the physicists are right, though, no technology could ever beat the ultimate limit they've calculated — which is about 10^16 times faster than today's fastest machines. At the current Moore's Law pace, computational speeds will hit the wall in 75 to 80 years. A paper describing the analysis, which relies on thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, and information theory, appeared in a recent issue of Physical Review Letters (abstract here)."

10 of 418 comments (clear)

  1. Re:WHAT!! by outsider007 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I plan on setting up server farms in parallel dimensions

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  2. Passing the buck by suso · · Score: 5, Funny

    Eh, let's let the singularity first, then we'll let the robots take care of the problem.

    1. Re:Passing the buck by Killer+Orca · · Score: 4, Funny

      Eh, let's let the singularity first, then we'll let the robots take care of the problem.

      You mean us?

  3. Re:WHAT!! by Jurily · · Score: 4, Funny

    Then it's finally time for One Dimension Per Child.

  4. Re:Transistors Per IC and Planck Time by Nefarious+Wheel · · Score: 4, Funny

    "In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is." - Yogi Berra (iirc)

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  5. Re:WHAT!! by Tumbleweed · · Score: 5, Funny

    Then it's finally time for One Dimension Per Child.

    I do hope you mean one _extra_ dimension per child.

  6. Subspace FTL field by caseih · · Score: 4, Funny

    So the solution is very obvious. Just put the entire computer in subspace field that creates a pocket of reality where the speed of light is faster (many times faster). Course you then have to have some mechanism for speeding up and slowing down data coming in the ODN conduits. It's been commonly done since the early 24th century. All of these pesky "limits" can be worked around with some fancy level-three diagnostics.

  7. Re:Reminds me of a joke by Tanktalus · · Score: 4, Funny

    (As an engineer...)

    Nah, that's not breaking the rules. After ten "moves", the eleventh move is simply to reach out and grab the treasure. If you average out his body's movement, you'll find that he has not, actually, traversed farther than half way to the treasure. Only a mathematician would consider the leading edge to be representative of the body, whereas an engineer would consider the centre of gravity to be representative (assume a spherical body... hey, no assumption required!), and thus there'd be no problem in reaching out to grab the treasure as long as his centre of gravity hasn't proceeded more than halfway between his previous location and the treasure. Mind you, if it's very heavy treasure, this may be more difficult.

  8. Re:Anyone else get the feeling... by gumpish · · Score: 4, Funny

    that the ultimate limit is the processes that the universe itself uses to "compute" its own state? That we can only ever asymptotically approach this limit? Once we hit the limit, our computations cease being simulations and become reality.

    Lay off the bong hits.

  9. Re:What is the limit? by DriedClexler · · Score: 4, Funny

    Pointing out that someone was off by 74 orders of magnitude isn't a nitpick :-P

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