Context: Moore's Law has been driving advances in the field of semiconductor devices for nearly half a century. As the law is broken due to physical limitations at the atomic level, the next generation electronics needs a new initiative to drive the next major revolution in computer science.
Intel co-founder, Goron Moore, has already said that the number of transistors on a chip will double each year, while costs can be halved. This notion has remained in place since 1965 and has held up well until the last year.
As we reach the physical limits because of the size of the atomic structures that make up modern electronics, we still need to determine where we will go next. To help understand where we are going, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is organizing the first electronic resurgence initiative. The three-day event to be held from July 23 to 25 in San Francisco will boost $ 1.5 billion in investments in innovative ideas for next-generation electronics.
Industry partners include Alphabet, Intel, Cadence, Nvidia, IBM, Mentor Graphics and Applied Materials. At the top of the IRA, artificial intelligence, material security, material emulation and photonics will occupy a central place. Not only is it necessary to build better equipment, but there is also a strong need to build the tools that help design engineers to make the impossible a reality. Hardware emulation becomes much more difficult when the next iteration of hardware does not exist yet.
Photonics is studied as a way to improve our already existing processes. Processors, GPUs, FPGAs, and ASICs all rely on smaller and smaller transistors to further reduce low power performance. The activation of light-based interconnections allows that latency depends on the speed of light through a medium instead of electricity flowing through the semiconductors.
The theory of integrated photonics in microelectronic systems has existed for decades, but feasibility issues have not yet been fully addressed. Unlike traditional silicon, photonic devices are currently not well suited to mass production.
This event of the collaborative industry could shape the way that electronics takes in the foreseeable future. Although we are decades before consumers begin to see the benefits of cutting-edge research, you should know that thousands of people are actively seeking solutions to continue the development of technology once Moore's Law is broken a once and for all.