Is There Life After Silicon Valley's Fast Lane?

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: "the terminal of Geoff Goodfellow" <geoff () iconia com>
Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 07:32:51 +0200
To: "Dave E-mail Pamphleteer Farber" <farber () cis upenn edu>
Subject: Is There Life After Silicon Valley's Fast Lane?

Is There Life After Silicon Valley's Fast Lane?

By JOHN MARKOFF
The New York Times

PALO ALTO, Calif., April 8 — Silicon Valley's true believers are having
second thoughts.

If there is a religion here in the nation's high-technology heartland, its
first commandment has long been Moore's Law, the 1965 observation by an
Intel co-founder, Gordon E. Moore, that the number of transistors on a
silicon chip would double annually. Dr. Moore later refined his projection,
and the doubling rate has held to about every 18 months ever since,
virtually dictating the pace of product obsolescence and innovation, and
indeed the pace of life, in Silicon Valley.

Now some experts warn that Moore's Law may soon reach its theoretical
limits, with dire consequences for the technology industry's economic
engine. Yet an influential cadre of heretics is arguing that seeing an end
to the slavish demands of Moore's Law could be the best thing to happen to
the culture of Silicon Valley and maybe even to the future of technological
innovation that is affected by that culture.

"Forget Moore's law, because it is unhealthy," Michael S. Malone, a longtime
member of the valley's technology community and an eBay founder, wrote
recently in a trade publication. Forget Moore's law, "because it has become
our obsession," Mr. Malone wrote. "Because high tech has become fixated on
it at the expense of everything else — especially business strategy."

--snip--

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/09/technology/09MOOR.html?pagewanted=all

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geoff.goodfellow () iconia com * Prague - CZ * telephone +420 603 706 558
"success is getting what you want & happiness is wanting what you get"
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/01/biztech/articles/17drop.html
http://www.tapsns.com/members-bio/geoff-goodfellow.shtml



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