We have not had a significant increase in power or speed in microprocessors for several years. In an attempt to get around this Intel and others have been putting multiple microprocessors on the same chip, 4, 6 or even 8 of them. But we have reached the limit on what we can do on a silicon substrate. The last real innovation was going from aluminum to copper over a decade ago. We can’t reduce the voltage any further so any increase in speed will result in too much heat. There may be some options to silicon and Intel is a very innovative and I’m sure they are researching the options. Possible options include carbon nano tubes and organic processors. I don’t know how long it will be until we see these innovations but don’t expect to see any increase in the performance in your PC until then.
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