The Future of Solid‐State Electronics

AUG 01, 1992

For three decodes most measures of the performance of digital electronics have been improving exponentially. What limits are in sight?

DOI: 10.1063/1.881316

Robert W. Keyes

The growth of commerce around the end of the 16th century created a need for large amounts of numerical calculation. the increasing understanding of astronomical phenomena around the same time also depended on accurate computation. the difficulty of accurately performing large amounts of tedious numerical work by hand stimulated Leibniz, Pascal and others to invent mechanical adding and multiplying machines in the 17th century. (See figure 1.) the speed and complexity of mechanical computation were limited by inertia, friction, size and the difficulty of transmitting information very far. the development of electrical technology led to the introduction of electrical components in peripheral parts of computing machines, such as motors in place of hand cranks. Major improvements in performance, however, had to await the electrical representation of information

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More about the Authors

Robert W. Keyes. IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York.