Moore's Law(s)

Apparently, "Almost everybody in the modern world has heard of Moore's Law." Well, I haven't but Michael S. Malone of abcnews.com seems to think I should have. For those of you out there who are new to all this techspeak, I will attempt to explain with the help of Malone's article, "Silicon Insider: The Last Days of Software?"

Moore's First Law

Moore's First Law was made by Gordon Moore in 1965, the co-founder of Fairchild and Intel (the people who make those fancy processors in our computers). The law is about the pace of hardware innovation. It says that the speed, size and price of semiconductor chips doubles every 18 months. Malone says a more realistic figure is 24 months. Moore's First Law, for the most part has proven to be true for memory chips and microprocessors, according to Malone.

Moore's Second Law

Moore's Second Law deals with the efficiency of electronic systems, saying it will double every 24 months. So what's the big deal? When chip performance (Moore's first law) doubles, the software needed to work with it quadruples. The problem is that there is a "shortfall" as Malone terms it, between the hardware created and the software needed ot run it. This could turn out to be a problem not only with operating systems like Microsoft's delayed release of Vista, but also with industries that are code-driven. This could include hospital equipment, airplaines and applicances. Malone says that the solutions are found in:

1. Finding/training more high-end code writers
2. More industry standards
3. More sophisticated ways of recycling and resuing exisiting codes
4. Government-backed industry initiatives

Check out Malones full (and technically wordy) article at www.abc.com.