Aug

18

Article of the Day, from Gary Rogan

August 18, 2011 |

1 Comment so far

1. Don Chu on August 22, 2011 2:02 pm

   Very interesting.

   In a way, Mr Dylan Distasio’s earlier post on “Intel Has Commercial Breakthrough in 3D (chips)” reinforces (to a higher order) John Seo’s observation of the benefits accruing to Density inherent within Moore’s Law.
   http://www.dailyspeculations.com/wordpress/?p=6523

   Some pertinent points from the referenced Intel article:

   Intel is claiming a 2x density improvement from 32nm to 22nm [3D Tri-Gate transistors]

   […]

   3) Thanks to larger inversion layer area, more current can flow when the transistor is on.
   The third point is particularly exciting because it allows for better transistor performance as well as lower overall power. The benefits are staggering:
   …Intel claims that the reduction in active power can be more than 50% compared to its 32nm process.

   And curiously, shades of John Seo’s description of our coming future dominated by ultra-dense financial and technological ‘megalopolises’ generating the bulk of global GDP, were already foreshadowed in this little book I read as a kid; the futurist and sci-fi writer, Bruce Sterling’s Islands in the Net. And how the entire world can be held to ransom by economic terrorism exercising the doctrine of the economic-militant manifesto, The Lawrence Doctrine and Postindustrial Insurgency.

   Of course, my interest in this 1988 cyberpunk novel was piqued primarily because Sterling chose to use my tiny red dot island country of Spore as one of the main backgrounds for constructing his vision of a future world dominated by a string of independent yet connected ‘Islands in the (inter)Net’:
   small but intensely dense and heavily built up city-states with skyscrapers shooting for miles into the sky, who dominate global politics and economics through their stranglehold on technological and financial innovation and prowess. And facilitated through a global corporation of ‘economic democrats’.

   Heh…