In my area there is a lot of discussion (and controversy) going on over the use of "intelligent design" being taught in our schools along with evolution. Sometimes I wonder if the "intelligent design" they are speaking of and the design evolutions that the electronics industry and other industries are seeing are not part of somebody's concurrent engineering plan. -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kotecki, George Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2005 2:16 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] Moore's law and PWBs You may want to read Ray Kurzweil's book, "The Age of Spiritual Machines". It discusses the future of computing. Its his take on the future of computing development, where the top is, what limits must be passed, an so on. One word of caution though. He does present an almost "matrix" world we could evolve to so take what he discusses with a grain of salt. I enjoyed the book and occasionally refer back to it in conversations such as this. Regards, George Kotecki Manager, MDE Northrop Grumman DSD-RMS 600 Hicks, Rd RM M2100 Rolling Meadows, IL 60008 *Phone: 847-259-9600 xt4276 *Fax: 847-818-5774 *pager: 847-694-4276 *e-mail: [log in to unmask] -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ingemar Hernefjord Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2005 2:00 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [TN] Moore's law and PWBs How will the boards be in the future? The chips have gone through a tremendous evolution. Intel's processor clocks nearly 4 Gbit/s now, but Sony/Toshiba's playstation processor can make 200 billion 'calculations' per sekund. That's not the end. The UK company Clear Speed (I think they call themselves that) are experimenting with chips with Several hundred processor cores. They claim that in one or two years from now, their processor will be capable of about 1,000 Gbit/s! But what about chip capacitors and copper lines and vias and all other components on a board? Ceramic capacitors have indeed become smaller and with a lot more pF in them. A 100 nF cap today is several times less in size than it was some 10 year back. And you can see tiny uH chips, LED chips, 6 A fuses just some square millimeters wide. But vias and PTHs and conductors and multilayer structures have not by far undergone same revolution. And we should not even talk about Moore's law. Question is: is there a demand for further minimizing these components? Or will the familiar PWB as we see it today be superseded by silicon (just an exampel, there are dozens of other materials) substrates with integration of LCR in one and the same process? Will a 100 Watt DC power supply be a 1x1 cm 'board' and a computer board less than your playcard? Will the enormous assembly plants be just small units with 100 persons, supercomputers, and automatic machines that produce electronics for a whole country on just a few hundred meters? What will happen if, over a night, there is a change from copper/ epoxy/drilling/plating/soldering/boards to substrates with built-in nanotubes, optic conductors and all other future stuff, and no need any more for the ordinary, now 50 year old PWB? Will this happen and when? We have been discussing this over a cup of tea or coffee (not american coffee) but it always ends in a shrug and 'well, well, that day, that headache'. Just wondering if anyone plans for the DAY, or if we all just put the head in the..the..waste bin. If we plan to conquer other planets and build civilisation there, logic gives that we must have and will see quite a new generation of 'boards'.. Ingemar Hernefjord Ericsson Microwave Systems --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 -----------------------------------------------------