Itanium Rising: Breaking Through Moore's Second Law of Computing Power

Moore's Second Law and How the Itanium Architecture Suspends It

In 1994, Moore postulated a second law that qualified his first one. Interestingly enough, the law he cited was not so much technological in nature as economic. Although increasingly sophisticated tools can be used to cram ever more transistors onto a chip, the price of the manufacturing expertise rises accordingly.

Over the past three decades, the cost of a chip fabrication plant has soared so high as to make percentage comparisons meaningless. The plant is easily the most expensive facility that the industry has to purchase, especially taking environmental costs into consideration. In 1966, a plant might have cost $14 million, whereas a plant with similar output today has a sticker-shock ...