End of the age of tech innovation is upon us

No one is officially willing to admit it. But almost everyone is preparing for it. For long – 50 years, to be precise – Moore's Law has shaped and powered the world of technology. It is an observation made by Gordon Moore, the cofounder of Intel. But despite being a casual observation, the Law, which states that the number of circuits in a computing chip doubles every two years, has been one of the most significant factors powering the pace of technological innovation since 1965.

Much of that has been because doubling transistors in a computing chip theoretically means doubling performance of a computer every two year. Then there has been a sort of arm race in the world of technology, with companies vying to break the speed of Moore's Law.

Moore's Law is the single biggest reason why nowadays we carry in our pocket a Rs 5,000 smartphone that is more powerful than the processors inside the spaceships like Apollo. 

But now physics is striking back. For the last five years or so, the pace, at which transistors could be made smaller so that more of them can fit into a silicon chip, is slowing. Last year Intel said it was longer doubling transistors in a computer chip in two years.

Instead, it was taking two and half years. Other companies, like TSMC and AMD are struggling harder. Going forward the pace is supposed to slow down further, especially after 2017 when we will see 10nm transistors.

The impact for the technology industry, as the Moore's Law ends, is going to be drastic. We already see that smartphones come packed with more gimmicky features. The computers are no longer getting faster. Now the focus is on to eke out every ounce of performance from existing hardware.

Unfortunately, for a industry that is known to offer dazzling new features to consumers, it may no longer be same without a breakthrough that can now bring the Moore's Law back into the game.