UI Vice President for Research and Economic Development Daniel A. Reed was interviewed in Nature about the swiftly changing worldwide semiconductor industry. Up until now, the industry has been governed by Moore’s law, a principle which states that the number of transistors on a microprocessor chip will double every two years or so, which generally means that the chip’s performance doubles as well.

However, microprocessor chips now cannot be made much smaller without generating too much heat, with so much silicon circuitry jammed into one small area. For the first time next month, the industry road map will lay out a research and development plan not centered on Moore’s law.

Though no one is certain of what the new roadmap will mean, everyone agrees that it does not mean the end of progress.

“Think about what happened to airplanes,” Reed said. “A Boeing 787 doesn’t go any faster than a 707 did in the 1950s—but they are very different airplane. Innovation will absolutely continue—but it will be more nuanced and complicated.”

To listen to the audio interview and read the full article, visit http://www.nature.com/news/the-chips-are-down-for-moore-s-law-1.19338.