Joshua Juran wrote:
..... multiple cores have gone mainstream as an alternative to increasing clock speed. Whereas a small increase in performance costs you a large increase in power consumption and heat generation, a reduction in performance (maybe 10 or 20%) cuts the heat and power in half -- at which point you can afford a second core, so overall performance is increased (provided you can keep both cores busy).
Also, at 3GHz, you cross-over into the SHF range of micro-wave on radio spectrum. As frequency increases, "Skin Effect" of AC current becomes more dramatic, to where it becomes impossible to use ordinary conductors to carry your clock pulses, data, etc. from one component to the next. You have to start using "Wave Guides", or hollow tubes to transmit information along an information pathway. And the wave guides have to be tuned to the frequency you are using. The long and the short of it is that to keep going up in frequency, we would need to start going back up in size to accommodate wave guides, relays, etc. Soon we'd be seeing room-size computers again... Or at least IBM 360 console size. :-) Anyone remember punch-cards?
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