Is This the End of Moore's Law?

Moore's Law is the observation that silicon transistors shrink to half their size every two years. Silicon transistors are semiconductor devices used to amplify and switch electronic signals and electrical power—the very foundation of modern electronic devices. Moore's Law accounts for the rapid improvement of such functions as screen resolution, processing speed, and memory capacity. So, how small can you get? IBM researchers, working at the forefront of nanotechnology, say "Moore's Law ends at the individual atom. Physically speaking, we can't get smaller than that."

Credits

Media Credits

The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit. The Rights Holder for media is the person or group credited.

Courtesy

IBM Research - Zurich

User Permissions

For information on user permissions, please read our Terms of Service. If you have questions about licensing content on this page, please contact natgeocreative@natgeo.com for more information and to obtain a license. If you have questions about how to cite anything on our website in your project or classroom presentation, please visit our FAQ page.

Media

Some media assets (videos, photos, audio recordings and PDFs) can be downloaded and used outside the National Geographic website according to the Terms of Service. If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the lower right hand corner () of the media viewer. If no button appears, you cannot download or save the media.