Sekrit Message to tanithryudo

[cashew]

So, uh, CompSci geek, tanithryudo, how feasible is LogicFolding?

Because, not gonna lie, this sounds weirdly corporate/marketing BS. My reasoning being: surely, the idea of stacking logic gates has occurred to people before? Or is there more to this that I'm not groking?

Comments

[tanithryudo]

Yeah, the idea of stacking gates is elementary. But what they are probably hyping is some specific configuration / formula.

And it's not like Moore's Law is an actual physics law like E=mc^2. Moore's Law is more like a prediction based on currently mainstream chip design formulas and theories. So if you come up with something different, you obviously would get different predictions based on it.

I'm sure the end product they're making is some improvement over existing stuff. Or else there's no point in developing/hyping it. But whether it's all *that* revolutionary or not will need time to prove it.

[cashew]

So, based on my layman's understanding, Moore's law predictions are hitting upon a physical limitation, because as transistors get smaller, quantum physics start messing with things. Additionally, on the business side of things, the profitability of squeezing more transistors onto the chip starts to decrease as the distance starts dropping due to other physics things with electrons and engineering jargon I don't understand. So sooner or later the industry will have to adopt this "logic folding" anyway because ... physics. But there's also the matter of keeping these chips cool when you add more 3D structure because... also physics.

So we're not even sure if this "tau scaling" thing will even really work in practice at scale. Am I more or less in the ballpark?

(But also at what point will I not need to keep updating computer hardware to keep up with the semiconductor arms race?😭)

[tanithryudo]

More like, as transistors get smaller, and under the current design paradigm for how they get put into chips...etc.

And this new Tau scaling is using a different design paradigm, so the future projected numbers graph will look different.

As for how things will work out in practice...we'll have to wait and see.

Also, I don't think we'll ever stop updating hardware as technology improves. I mean, unless WWIII happens and we all get bombed back into the stone age or smth...