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Just how small can they get?

Don Wade May 11, 2021 at 01:01 1225 views 2 comments
IBM just had a news-flash that they have introduced a (2) Nanometer chip - https://circuitdigest.com/news/ibm-introduces-2-nanometer-chip-technology-for-high-performance-and-increased-energy-efficiency . Expected to be in production in the next couple of years. In addition, they have introduced "layered" circuits (much like a layered cake). Putting these two technologies together begs the question: "Just how small can they get?"

In just one layer they can put 50-billion transistors on a chip. If one increased the layers by just 1,000 - now you are (potentially) looking at 50-trillion bits of information one could cram into a space no larger than an acorn. We are already reaching limits as to how much information can be (stored and used) - so, are we reaching a theortical limit on how much nformation can be gathered, and used - in just our lifetime?

Comments (2)

fishfry May 11, 2021 at 01:24 #534256
Feynman's great paper, There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom.

https://calteches.library.caltech.edu/1976/1/1960Bottom.pdf
Don Wade May 11, 2021 at 02:29 #534266
Reply to fishfry Quoting fishfry
Feynman's great paper, There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom.


Good article on how small can the devices go, but as the devices for information-storage gets smaller, the "quantity" of information available for storage, and then used, increases. Then the question: How much information can be created, and stored, and then used? It seems we are getting the ability to gather more information, and then store, than we will have the ability to use. To me, it seems like a philosophical question? So, is the ability to (create and store) information getting greater than the ability to use that information? In a sense - information overload?