recently scientists said the miniaturisation of computer chips is reaching a limit. what effect will it have..

Question

.. on economy?

Answer 1

Scientists have been predicting the limit to miniaturization for decades, yet new ways keep getting developed to push the limits further down. In the 80's the limit was thought to be around 1 micron, but now we're down to around 45 nanometer (like the other guy said). Right now the practical limit is around 20nm, which will take several years to reach, but by then we'll probably find new ways to keep shrinking.

I've heard one argument that miniaturization will be more cost-limited than it is technology limited. Technology is a bigger and bigger piece of the GDP, to the point that if you extrapolate out 20yrs it will be something like 95% of GDP, which is unrealistic. Further Miniturization costs more and more expenive, so without a radical new technology that is more cost-effective technology advancement may slow down.

But your question is what would happen to he economy if we do reach a limit. It may not make a huge difference - there are other growth areas in the economy. Besides we have more computing power than we know what to do with. Windows and most major PC programs have so much bloatware on them simply because computing power is getting so cheap.

Answer 2

Even though computer chips are reaching their limits in size and operational capabilities, other technologies, like bio technology using live materials, nano technology using very very tiny (molecular size) materials, and sub atomic technology (using atomic spin and other characteristics) are promising technologies that will exceed what computer chips can do.

Clearly R&D will flourish as the technologies are researched and products are developed from them. And as products are designed, fabricated, assembled, packaged, and distributed, industries will start and flourish as well.

And if the costs and benefits of the new products are appealing to potential users, wholesale and retail businesses will grow, prosper, and profit. They will require some workforce to support them. Sales will be generated and incomes will be earned.

All in all, the nations that develop the new technologies should do quite well. And those will be the nations with a highly trained cadre of technically savvy people. And at this time, it looks as though India and China are the nations whose economies will benefit most.

Answer 3

Take it with a grain of salt. One thing to keep in mind is that computer miniaturization is *always* at its economic limit. If there were a way to make it smaller and sell it economically, they would already be doing it. What changes is technology; as technology improves, the economic limit shrinks.

What the "scientists" mean is that the current technology of silicon based lithography is reaching its limit, but there are other technologies in development. Making the jump from silicon is a big one, however, so Moore's law of doubling may have to take a breather.

Answer 4

No more effects on economy because computer has become a backbone in every field of life. People will continue to use the computers with same spirit. However, scientists would now concentrate more on the speed, precision, endurance, reliability, and last but not the least removal of mechanical parts from computer to reduce the maintenance and malfunctioning of computers.

Answer 5

Conventional circuit design has a linewidth of 45 nanometers.

One of the hairs on your head is 100,000 nanometers across. Even if we can't improve the quality of the chips much further, we can certainly design more to do more functions.

The computational power available today is staggering.

Other technologies are being investigated, such as quantum computing, which could be far more powerful than the chips of today.

Answer 6

Technology will always go forward, and new discoveries will always be made. We have not reached the limit -- we're not even close. Eventually someone will figure out how to make a "quantum computer", which will be exponentially faster than any computer made today.

Answer 7

Scientific inovation has no limit. As far as economy is concerned, the pricce of the new inovation is high and keeps falling as becomes older. So economy is always on a wave increasing and decreasing.

Answer 8

No way is it reaching the limit. The new big thing that their working on is nano technology. And that is like microscopic little robots that will be mostly use for medical reasons. You can look it up.

Answer 9

a good effect, that means that technology is eventually going to get old, which means that is gonna become cheap.

Answer 10

There will be a more sophisticated way and chips will be outdated.