One challenge for architects is that the design created today will require several years of implementation, verification, and testing before appearing on the market. This means that the architect must project what the technology will be like several years in advance. Sometimes, this is difficult to do.

a. According to the trend in device scaling observed by Moore’s law, the number of transistors on a chip in 2015 should be how many times the number in 2005?

b. The increase in clock rates once mirrored this trend. Had clock rates continued to climb at the same rate as in the 1990s, approximately how fast would clock rates be in 2015?

c. At the current rate of increase, what are the clock rates now projected to be in 2015?

d. What has limited the rate of growth of the clock rate, and what are architects doing with the extra transistors now to increase performance?

e. The rate of growth for DRAM capacity has also slowed down. For 20 years, DRAM capacity improved by 60% each year. That rate dropped to 40% each year and now improvement is 25 to 40% per year. If this trend continues, what will be the approximate rate of growth for DRAM capacity by 2020?