Reach for the skyscraper: chips that beat the Moore's Law limit

In the age of big data, cloud and the internet of things, our thirst for computing power has never been greater. Many of our readers will be familiar with Moore’s law, the observation that predicts a doubling of computing capability every two years, as integrated circuits are packed ever denser with increasingly smaller transistors. This general rule of thumb has held firm over the past number of decades, but the pace of progress is now beginning to slow, with Intel’s CEO noting last year that the rate is slipping closer to two and a half years.

As we push against the current limits of nanotechnology and chip fabrication, this slowdown is inevitable, and likely to get worse over time. How then, will the next great leap forward in computing be achieved? Rather than relying on increasing the raw computing power of integrated circuits, the answer could potentially be found through a reimagining of microchip architecture.