[comp.arch] silicon limits

henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (12/16/87)

> ... There is a Rand Corp report by Sutherland, Meade, and
> Everhart on the limitations of silicon (there are other similar reports)
> which chronicles about 9 generations of Silicon...

One has to be very wary about believing such reports (I haven't seen this
particular one, this is just a general warning).  For every one-paragraph
proof that technology X fundamentally does not allow Y, there is usually
some bright young snot who can find a way around the "fundamental" limit
that justified the original statement.  My favorite is the IEEE Compcon
paper circa 1977 that proved conclusively that it was impossible to build
a 64Kb DRAM without abandoning optical lithography in favor of electron-beam
or X-ray processes.
-- 
Those who do not understand Unix are |  Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
condemned to reinvent it, poorly.    | {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,utai}!utzoo!henry