HP tries to end-run Moore's law

The AP yesterday carried news that HP is developing technology to create more powerful processors that consume less power than today’s chips using nanotechnology.

Researchers say that excessive heating and nanoscale operational defects are deflecting technology off the Moore’s law doubling curve we’ve been on for decades.

But HP researchers may have found a way around those issues:

They say their innovation lies in packing transistors tighter together on a chip, rather than the traditional method of shrinking the transistors themselves to fit more onto a single piece of silicon.…

The research was conducted using modeling and simulation, but HP said a laboratory prototype could be ready within the year. A production-quality chip could be available by 2010.