Is it the End for Moore's Law? - Computerphile

Moore's Law has held true for 40 years, but many say it will soon end - Can chip designers avoid the laws of physics? Professor Derek McAuley explains how chips are built.

This video was filmed and edited by Sean Riley.

[AngadAnand]

at 2:28 i thought it was an editing error and the video started replaying

[davidliddelow]

One of the biggest costs in the semiconductor industry is actually the rate of progress it self. If you have to upgrade your production line every 18 months to have a sellable product then you only have 18 months to recover your costs. If computing power per area hits a wall, the cost per area will plummet and people will just start building computers with more physical silicon in them.

[tillsen]

Good video, but the editing is a bit off it seems.
The start just starts mid sentence, without introduction and then some of the start parts are reused toward the 3 minute mark. Strange.

[TheRealWinsletFan]

The start of this video seems to be mis-edited

[leiverge]

It's great to actually hear real computer scientist talk about Moore's Law, instead of reading it from 'wanna-be scientist' from various tech sites, who clearly have no idea what they are talking about.

Great video.

[onesandzeroes]

I wish Brady would stop doing those intros with a bit from the middle of the film - I don't know what purpose it serves apart from confusing the viewer ( you think you're supposed to know what they're talking about but it's ripped out of context). This technique may work for some entertainment stuff, to whet your appetite, but I don't find it useful for educational videos.

[energysage]

There's 3 massive areas in their infancy that will save the future of computing capabilities: 3d processors, neural networks, and quantum computers. I wouldn't worry about hitting a wall until these areas are better researched. 
I doubt the improvements will continue to follow such a predictable curve as Moore's Law gave but we're nowhere near the limits of computation. 

[Jianju]

Still a great video! And now, two years later, we're starting to see 16nm chips, with 14nm & even 10nm on the way. Moore's Law continues to hold true! How low can we go??

[yushatak]

Don't suppose there's more footage of him explaining how a semiconductor works?

[TomatoBreadOrgasm]

I have been wondering about this for a while, myself.

I sort of lost focus when he started explaining how basic doping is done, though. I know that's not what the video was about, but his explanation was so clear to me, moreso than any other I've encountered. Well done, Prof. McAuley.

[colorschan]

Why there is 40 seconds in the beginning of the video that is totally random talk is beyond me. Why not start the video when he actually starts talking about the subject matter?..

[rogerwilco]

I know in 1997, when the first 90nm chips were coming out, but most things were still 150nm. I was at a presentation by a fellow from ASML, who already predicted back then that they had a roadmap up to 22 nm, but would expect to hit the end of Moore's law after that.

[KurtSchwind]

Would love to see a Computerphile explaining 'block chains' as used by bit-coin.  

[mrvlhs]

This was a great episode, I wish you'd do more interesting stuff like this.

[ghelyar]

Was told by my profs 10+ years ago that we were already at the point that Moore's law was about to end. Take it with a pinch of salt.

[Brakvash]

I'd still be pretty content about maxing out Moore's Law. When we have a limit to the expansion of processing power we could very well consolidate our social structures around the computer; just like with printing. It went through a formative process and then settled into a set form.

[helperfunction]

One of the best explanations of the litographic process I've seen

[jonkrieger]

Thanks for the great vids, but the editing on this one was really confusing. I thought something had glitched and I hit refresh in my browser because he was repeating himself. But anyway, great stuff, one of my favorite channels on the tube!

[AspectOfTheStorm]

I feel like a lot of these episodes start off in the middle of a one sided conversation. There's practically zero background given at the beginning. They're usually given about half way through, making the previous stuff useless, unless you go an rewatch them. I still enjoy them, but I'd appreciate it if you could start the videos off a little different.

[chasp_]

I could listen to this fella talk for hours, interesting stuff :)