Essay on the Growth of Computer Processor Chips

Computer processors have grown fast in the last 50 years. According to Hennessy and Patterson (2006) the growth rate of information technology products is at 100% per year. Computer processors have maintained this growth rate of the last fifty years, leading to highly powerful computers as well as computerized systems. This growth is necessary for the development of better computers that can handle the more intelligent actions such as making decisions that human beings can make. As of now, most computers depend on pre-coded instructions that are rigid and incapable of handling all possible eventualities. Although many technology firms have tried to make intelligent computers and robotics, most of them depend a lot of massive instructions that are developed using programming languages. The fact that the current virtual intelligence is dependent on these instructions means that they cannot be as intelligent as a human being. With better processors however, computers will be able to completely mimic human intelligence. More powerful processors will give them more power than human beings because they will not only be able to be intelligent, but will also be able to make calculations in very high speeds.

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The graph below shows the rate of computer processor growth. At this rate, it is estimated that in less than thirty years, computers will have managed to become as intelligent as human beings.

The information presented in the graph above is a clear indication of the rate of growth of processing power of a computer chip. This growth has been inspired by increased research and design that most technology firms engage in every year. The 1990s was when the computer processor had the most growth. This was inspired by massive investments in the research and development. More so, the growth rate is also as a result of new technologies that made it for hip manufacturers to make faster and better systems.

However, the graph also shows that the growth rate decline somewhere in the early 2000s. At this time, the processor power had grown at unprecedented rates. As Kurzweil (2006) says, the growth of the processing power of a chip should be match growth in other computer components or it will not have any significant impact on the processing power of a computers. These other components include the dynamic memory of a computer, as well as the hard disk where the computer stores programs. In the early 2000s, the computer processor had grown too much that the other components were not matching its power. If the computer processor is so powerful and the memory of the hard disk is slower, the processor will also be slow. The processors fetches its instruction from the moment and he hard disk. Of the computers memory is slow as was the case in early 2000s, the rate at which the processor fetches instructions from the memory and the hard disk and then executes them would be limited. As a result, one can then explain that the small decline in growth for processor power resulted from the fact that having this processor power would have been futile without. As a result, the computer processor had to slow down for faster and more effective memory to be developed.

If one translates the graph above, it will be clear that at the current growth rate, the computer chips of the future will be powerful enough for intelligent systems to be developed. Not only will these systems be able to carry out more executions per microsecond, they will also be able to carry out multiple instructions. Starting in 2007, the first multi-chip processors were launched. This change increased the processing power the graph shows this clearly. Today, most processors have more than two chips in them and this means hat hey can be able fetch and execute many instructions from the memory faster and more efficiently. One can expect that this growth will continue and that in the not so far future, computer processors will fetch more instructions simultaneously as they have never been able to do in the past.

Conclusion

Although the processing power of computer chips has been seen to grow at an almost continuous rate of 100% annually, this may not necessary mean that this will continue for the unforeseeable future. As a result, there may be a decline in the future as the processors reach the pinnacle of growth. On the other hand, if this growth can continue like this for the next few years, it would meant that computers are going to be very powerful and that they can do much more than the computers of today. The average computer in the modern world can do tasks that are million of times more difficult than the first computers. The increased computing power has been as a result of more powerful processors. Processor growth rates are not only in terms of speeds, but also their size. The small chip in a modern smartphone is much more powerful than a processor in a large mainframe of the 1970s. As time goes by, this will reveal itself to see if computers can be much smaller and much powerful.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hennessy, J., & Patterson, A. (2006). Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach. New York City, NY: Morgan Kaufmann.

Kurzweil, R. (2006). The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. London, UK: Penguin Books.