Remember Moore’s Law? It basically says that the number of transistors on silicon will double about every two years while the cost of the computers is halved. This suggests exponential growth of chip capabilities and immense downward price pressure on chips. Most experts agree that Moore’s Law is no longer true. (Some experts will argue it was never true, but that story is for a different day).
What is true is that increasing computational capability is an ongoing competition that is extremely healthy for the industry. During Monday’s AMD event, the company unveiled its Ryzen 7000 series CPUs and boasted that its new Ryzen 5 7600X is 11% faster than Intel’s Core i9-12900K. This “our new chip is faster than the other leading chip maker’s chip” boast (which is only true in certain benchmark tests) is so old school that I never pay much attention to it, but I should, and you should too. Chips power 100% of our digital lives.
The chip shortage has pulled our focus to supply chain issues, but incremental innovation leading to incremental increases in productivity are as important as ever. How will these incremental increases change the technology we use everyday?
More powerful chips lead directly to increased capabilities. Miniaturization leads to mobility. The playful, boastful, unimportant announcement that “our new chip is faster than the other leading chip maker’s chip” should never be ignored; it should be celebrated by all!
Author’s note: This is not a sponsored post. I am the author of this article and it expresses my own opinions. I am not, nor is my company, receiving compensation for it.