Moore’s Law, by Intel founder Gordon Moore in 1965, says that the number of transistors in a microprocessor doubles every year, which is generalized into the processing power doubling every two years for the same price (Bourgois et al., 2019, p.27-28). Although Moore’s Law was held true for 40 years (Bourgois et al., 2019, p.28), it has slowed down due to recent complexity of design. Improvements are still exponential, but not doubling every two years (James, 2022).
Sustainability-wise, Moore’s Law indicates that the cost of compute should be half what it is today in two years. As business demands grow, Moore’s Law also means that business will be able to use twice the performance for the same price in two years (Thompson, 2022). Renewable energy can take advantage of the doubling of computing power in Moore’s Law. Rapidly improving compute efficiency allows us to invent new materials, leverage AI and robotics to derive new combinations and designs and automate our lives even further. Moore’s Law’s effects improve economic output and accelerate innovation while amplifying the efficiencies of renewable energy (Gross, 2022). These improvements improve sustainability.
Moore’s Law increases sustainability in these ways: every 2 years, the output of wind and solar energy systems doubles. This happens at the same time that HVAC systems reduce energy consumption by 50 percent for the same compute. Environmental technologies are improving dramatically, allowing the possibility of regeneration and sustainability (Moores Law Meets Sustainability, 2022). IT becomes a business enabler and a competitive advantage, even in industries like the construction industry, because Moore’s Law is driving the productivity of the business as well as the innovation, data analytics, and automation in categories such as supply chain, customer relationship management, logistics, and human resources management. The fast-improving computing illustrated by Moore’s Law allows businesses to be faster and cheaper, sustainably (Gamage, 2021).
References:
Bourgois, D.T., Smith, J.L., Wang, S., & Mortati, J. (2019, August 1). Information systems for business and beyond (2019). Saylor Foundation. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.biola.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=open-textbooks. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0.
Gamage, A. (2021, September 07). Implications of Moore’s law on Construction industry -. Retrieved from https://builtlogy.com/implications-of-moores-law-on-construction-industry
Gross, B. (2022, September 13). Moore’s Law is our ‘secret weapon’ for a sustainable civilization | Greenbiz. Retrieved from https://www.greenbiz.com/article/moores-law-our-secret-weapon-sustainable-civilization
James, L. (2022, February 28). Moore’s Law in 2022: What’s the status quo? Power & Beyond. Retrieved from https://www.power-and-beyond.com/moores-law-in-2022-whats-the-status-quo-a-dc63a87e669b554d4d33d2a5ba73692a
Moores Law Meets Sustainability | INABA. (2022, September 13). Retrieved from https://www.inaba.us/project/moores-law-meets-sustainability
Thompson, S. (2022, September 13). Moore’s Law and How It Pertains to Business. Retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/moores-law-pertains-business-75824.html