For four decades the evolution of integrated circuits has followed Moore s law, according to which the number of transistors per square millimeter of silicon doubles every 18 months. At the same time transistors have become faster, making possible ever-increasing clock rates in digital circuits. This trend seems set to continue for at least another decade without slowing down. Thus, in the near future the processing power of digital circuits will continue to increase at an accelerating pace. For analog circuits the evolution of technology is not as beneficial. Thus, there is a trend to move...

For four decades the evolution of integrated circuits has followed Moore s law, according to which the number of transistors per square millimeter of silicon doubles every 18 months. At the same time transistors have become faster, making possible ever-increasing clock rates in digital circuits. This trend seems set to continue for at least another decade without slowing down. Thus, in the near future the processing power of digital circuits will continue to increase at an accelerating pace. For analog circuits the evolution of technology is not as beneficial. Thus, there is a trend to move...