Moore’s Law to continue through this decade

April 11, 2001 | Source: KurzweilAI

LIVERMORE, Calif. — Industry and government officials today announced completion of the first full-scale prototype machine for making computer chips using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light, a breakthrough that will lead to microprocessors that are tens of times faster than today’s most powerful chips and create memory chips with similar increases in storage capacity.

Lithography technology should allow for circuits as small as 0.03 microns, extending the current pace of semiconductor innovation at least through the end of this decade.

Processors built using EUV technology are expected to reach speeds of up to 10 GHz in 2005-2006.

The prototype was developed by industry-government collaboration among three U.S. Department of Energy national labs and a consortium of semiconductor companies that includes Intel, Motorola and IBM.