Since we have reached the limit of what is possible with one or
more traditional CPUs, the computing industry needs to take the
leap into parallel processing, says Bill Dally, chief scientist
and senior vice president of research at NVIDIA. Forty-five
years ago this month, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore predicted
that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit would
double each year (later revised to every 18 months). This laid
the groundwork for another prediction: that doubling the number
of transistors would also double the performance of CPUs every
18 months. This bold prediction, known as Moore?s Law, long held
true. But we have reached the limit of what is possible with one
or more traditional CPUs. The computing industry - and everyone
who relies on it for continued improvements in productivity -
needs to take the leap into parallel processing. The CPU scaling
predicted by Moore?s Law is now dead, according to Nvidia's
researcher. Moore's paper also contained another prediction that
has received