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Page 2 of 2 Ok.. so what does all this mean.. or whats my point? Well, soon, you will likely see the fastest computers are actually comprised of 2 or more computers, just stuffed into one case. Just like the nano-meter wars, there comes a point of diminishing returns. I predict for the "multi-core" technology, that'll be right around 16, maybe 24 cores before the costs and architectural impracticalities simply aren't worth it. They may still sell, but simply put, a 24 core cpu will NOT do twice as much work as a 12 core. You'd be lucky to see a 40% speed increase, and performance gains only get worse the more cores you add.
So, what do we do now? We can't break Moore's law ! In short, we need to abandon the silicon ship and completely rethink computer design. Now I'm not an engineer, or a physicist or anything like that, but, it seems to me fiber optics work pretty well for moving data really fast, and too my knowledge, shooting light down a fiber optic thread causes minimal heat if any. Since the advent of CD rom and DVD drives, laser emitters have become relatively cheap... so, what the heck, swap out the motherboard's diesel powered buses for the light speed capable millennium falcon?
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Something else they do with fiber optics to cram even more data through is called multi-plexing, essentially sending 4 or 5 data streams through at the same time, just slightly offset, so the receiving end can differentiate the streams, dissect and distribute them accordingly. Scaling this down to your fit your motherboard certainly seems a worthwhile endeavor. Imagine true multi-tasking instead of just really fast time slicing (what is currently perceived as multi-tasking is really just time slicing your CPUs attention among all the various tasks it is tasked to perform) Then, for the uber geeky means of moving data over great distances there is something called quantum entanglement. This is something Einstein predicted, and he dubbed it "spukhafte Fernwirkung" which is German for "spooky action at a distance." Actually quite accurate, because it is pretty dang spooky to recieve data before it was sent... well ok, that may just be a flaw in human perception when you are measuring speeds by billionths of a second, still its pretty dang spooky.
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In layman terms, quantum entanglement is essentially interaction between two sibling molecules. Think of them as identical twins, but born at the exact same time and identical in every way. Then a terrible tragedy! One is kidnapped and taken hundreds of miles away... Oddly, if the kidnappers spank their abducted baby, both babies instantly start to cry. If the babies were even father apart, it could appear that the baby who is safe and sound started crying before the abducted one was spanked. This is due to the fact that the entanglement causes an instant reaction on the observed sibling, while the observations of remote sibling is delayed by distance and the speed of light.
Ok, so moving data within your computer, and across the globe at light speed should suffice, yes? Well no, actually. We've only covered moving data faster, not actually processing it faster. For that we need a completely new kind of thinking on CPU architecture. Basically what could the transistors be made out of that allows them to be even smaller, be activated by even lower voltages and be manufactured consistently and affordably? Well.. remember the old joke about the hamster running on its wheel to power your computer? How about something only slightly less inhumane, but on a much grander scale? Billions of light sensitive organisims embedded onto an epoxy plate. Basically genetically altered plankton that instantly react when exposed to light by a slight, but observable chemical reaction. I myself have issues with the ethical boundries of creating a life form only to imprison it and force it to work for us for its entire existance, but it seems inevitable that in time I'll overlook it, much like how I still eat chicken after having visited a large chicken farm and processing plant.
I'm sure there are alternatives to the bio-engineered transistor which I liken to imprisoned sea monkies, whom I can't help but feel sorry for, but at the moment I can't envision one that is as practical. With mother nature taking care of the majority of the design, quality control and production issues, it's simply too cost effective to be passed up.
Who knows 20 years from now, you might just be tossing obsolete computer components into your salad. Stranger things have happened.
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