Title: Challenges to Keeping the Computer Industry Centered in the US,
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.