Chapter 23: 2020 World with Chips

The energy-efficiency of digital multipliers, high-speed memory cells and chip-chip interconnects advancing to femto- and atto-Joule levels,
The energy-efficiency of digital multipliers, high-speed memory cells and chip-chip interconnects advancing to femto- and atto-Joule levels,

Although we are well advised to look at the future 1 day at a time, we have seen in the chapters of this book, and they necessarily could cover only a selection on the features and applications of those tiny chips, that their potential continues to grow at the exceptional rates of the past. However, the new commitment has to be towards Sustainable Nanoelectronics, guided by creating sensing, computing, memory, and communication functions, which move just a few electrons per operation, each operation consuming energy less than one or a few femtojoule, less than any of the 100 Trillion synapses in our brains. At these energy levels, chips can serve everywhere, making them ubiquitous, pervasive, certainly wireless, and often energy-autonomous. The expected 6 Billion users of these chips in 2020, through their mobile, intelligent companions and assistants, will benefit from global and largely equal access to information, education, knowledge, skills, safe mobility and care.

Contributors

Bernd Hoefflinger