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Subject: Re: Is there a theoretical limit to the speed of a processor?

Author: Roy Eassa

Date: 16:40:56 06/06/02

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On June 06, 2002 at 18:06:27, Dan Andersson wrote:

>I know you said that you were interested in current technologies. But the
>theoretical limit of a processor is a function of the fundamentals of physics.
>In the rough one can say that the maximum performance is dependant on the mass
>of the processor. The bigger the processor the larger the amout of computations
>that can be performed. But the speed of a sequential algorithm is bounded by the
>speed of light and therefore you have to increase the density of the matter.
>There you reach another limit, the black hole limit. Thus it is possible to give
>a limit to the computational power of mass per kilogram. Look for the papers of
>Seth Lloyd. If you limit yourself to current processes. It's a procedure of
>finding the mean critical path length in the processor.
>
>MvH Dan Andersson



In any case, how many more years can we keep doubling speed every 1.5 - 2 years
before we run into the laws of physics?  I can't imagine it's more than a few
decades more.




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