Intel expects to see Moore's law continue for the near future and also plans for its x86 processor architecture to extend across everything from small embedded devices right up to supercomputers, according to the head of its Digital Enterprise group, Pat Gelsinger. However, programming techniques are going to have to evolve to make better use of many-core chips.Speaking at a briefing to mark Intel's 40th anniversary, Gelsinger gave his predictions for the future of computer technology, focusing on the key areas of Moore's law, many-core chips, the Intel architecture (IA), and visual computing. Gelsinger said that Moore's law would continue to extend into the future, and said that Intel has a roadmap for 32nm, 22nm and 10nm chips.
"I can recall in the past we thought reaching 1 micron (1 micrometre) would be hard," he commented, adding that as each milestone was reached, the way ahead became clearer, despite predictions that Moore's law was running out of steam.

What's next after 10nm? How small can things go?
Ask Mr. Chronopolous, he knows a lot about how small things can get.
5 years? Are you kidding? You can get cheap computers ($900) with 4gigs right now.
In 5 years, 4gigs will be like 512mb is right now.
i knew this would happen
you see, now people are confused because people call 64-bit x64 which is not correct
x86 = 32bit and 64bit
What Intel giveth Microsoft taketh away!
What extra does the 10 GB of O/S of Windows 2008 / Hyper-V do, that Windows 2003 and Virtual Server 2005 at 1 GB achieves. Hardware has to continually increase just to cope with the massive quantities of code. What does it all do? Does anyone understand the layout of the filing system on Vista /2008 server?
What are you talking about? There is absolutely no mention whatsoever of Microsoft or their servers in this article.
So we can't be forced to jump over a (nobody like) 64bits architecture.
Anyways right now 1gb (2gb if uses vista) is just fine for 90% of the users and the rest is for server, render node and such.
Why would you ever want to do something like that?
Even in multi-CPU (multiprocessing) 32-bit servers, you can't have more that 4 GB of RAM. No way, no how, no duh. It's only when you move to x64 that more than 4GB becomes possible.
Also, remember that each device on the system bus that has it's own dedicated memory address(s) assigned to them use up the available addressable system memory, even though this memory may not be RAM. This is why systems with video cards cannot get to 4GB of addressable RAM under 32-bit OS: The video card has VRAM that is using up some of the addressable memory space.
Say you wanna run a 32-bit system with 4GB of ram and a pair of 1 GB video cards. Guess what, it's not gonna happen. You'll get 2GB of RAM at best, even if you slot 4GB. Hence, x64 is really the only way forward. Eventually, video games will actually NEED 4 GB of ram and then all the 32-bit gamers will be S.O.L.
x86 is not.
Don't compare apples with oranges.
True x86 is CISC, not RISC.
True x86 is CISC, not RISC.
Yes. The AMD Athlon 32 bit CPU was RISC based, if I remember correctly.
x86 is not.
Don't compare apples with oranges.
Eh? For an embedded environment, say using Linux, you can directly compare performance. The only main difference is the performance of things like the FPU operations....which most ARM CPUs have added instructions to make up for it. Why do you think NVidia chose ARM for their embedded SoC if they want to support full HD on a ~400 MHz CPU? You wont get close to that on x86.
True x86 is CISC, not RISC.
Yes. The AMD Athlon 32 bit CPU was RISC based, if I remember correctly.
x86 is mixed RISC and CISC (Which in my mind makes it CISC)
Many processors internally split up complex instructions into simpler ones, making the actual execution RISC-like, but the high level architecture is still CISC. Look up 'microoperations'
The "big iron" unix types have been running on a large variety of non-x86 CPUs, so we aren't really talking software here, but the CPU architecture/hardware side of computing.
And the general fact is, 32 bit does not support 4gb of memory, you are limited to just above 3gb. To get full 4gb or more support you need Physical Address Extension, and PCI memory remap. Physical Address Extension is messy, even though it has been around for a long time still doesn't really work properly as many have found. 4gb is definitely needed now, especially if you are doing video editing or playing games. The only thing you don't really need 64 bit for is everyday word processing, but even then 64 bit certainly does not hurt!
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