Challenges to Keeping the Computer Industry Centered in the US

TL;DR

This paper discusses the decline of US dominance in the global computer industry, emphasizing the end of Moore's Law and the need for the US to innovate in new computing technologies to maintain leadership.

Contribution

It summarizes efforts by IEEE Rebooting Computing and CCC to identify new computing approaches and strategies for the US to stay competitive amid international technological advancements.

Findings

Moore's Law is expected to end in 2021.

US must innovate in neuromorphic computing and other approaches.

International competitors are investing heavily in new computing technologies.

Abstract

It is undeniable that the worldwide computer industry's center is the US, specifically in Silicon Valley. Much of the reason for the success of Silicon Valley had to do with Moore's Law: the observation by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore that the number of transistors on a microchip doubled at a rate of approximately every two years. According to the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors, Moore's Law will end in 2021. How can we rethink computing technology to restart the historic explosive performance growth? Since 2012, the IEEE Rebooting Computing Initiative (IEEE RCI) has been working with industry and the US government to find new computing approaches to answer this question. In parallel, the CCC has held a number of workshops addressing similar questions. This whitepaper summarizes some of the IEEE RCI and CCC findings. The challenge for the US is to lead this new era of computing. Our international competitors are not sitting still: China has invested significantly in a variety of approaches such as neuromorphic computing, chip fabrication facilities, computer architecture, and high-performance simulation and data analytics computing, for example. We must act now, otherwise, the center of the computer industry will move from Silicon Valley and likely move off shore entirely.