Seminar: Dr. Randy Isaac, "The Rise and Fall of Moore's Law" (1/8/2009)

The Rise and Fall of Moore's Law
Randy Isaac
Former Vice President, IBM Research

Abstract: The astounding rate of progress of computer technology since the middle of the 20th century is symbolized by the well-known "Moore's Law." Though the media usually discusses this law in terms of its prediction of the rate of progress, the real value lies in its articulation of the root causes and effects of the fundamental factors in silicon technology. In this lecture those root causes will be identified and discussed using DRAM memory technology as the prime example. There are significant changes occurring in this technology. The impact of these changes are likely to affect the future of computer technology.

http://researchweb.watson.ibm.com/deepblue/meet/html/d.3.3a.html:

"To meet continuing demand for performance, we're going to have to look beyond simply making circuits smaller," said Dr. Randall D. Isaac, vice president, Systems, Technology, and Science, IBM Research. "Increasingly, performance gains will be driven by innovations in chip design. With breakthroughs such as our silicon-on-insulator technology moving into the market, and new circuit architectures and promising research like IPCMOS under way in our labs, IBM is building its arsenal for the era of multigigahertz chips."

Randy Isaac is known as the "Godfather" of Blue Gene, a high performance computer developed by IBM that was ranked number 1 on the Top 500 list for several years.