Essential Guide to Semiconductors, The

Microprocessor Future Trends

There's no question that microprocessors will continue to grow more complex over time. We're nowhere near reaching any natural limit to microprocessor growth. Where once it seemed silly to design a computer-on-a-chip—after all, how many computers does the world need—now it seems just as absurd to stop.

The actual size of microprocessor chips is growing only slowly, but the complexity within them is growing much faster because semiconductor technology permits engineers to squeeze more transistors into less space. Microprocessors with 1 million transistors were surpassed by 10-million-transistor processors after only a few years. Microprocessors with 100 million transistors weren't far behind. This trend continues with ...