How is it that today’s tiny USB fla

How is it that today’s tiny USB flash memory thumb drives can store more data than entire desktop computers from only a few years ago?
It all has to do with the integrated circuit, better known as the computer chip.
As chip manufacturing techniques improve, more and more transistors are able to be squeezed onto a chip.
And the more transistors a chip has, the more data it can process and store.
In 1965, Gordon E. Moore, a cofounder of Intel Corporation, made an important observation about the evolution of computer chips.
Roughly paraphrased, Moore stated that the number of transistors manufacturers can cheaply embed on computer chips doubles every twelve months (he later revised the doubling time to 24 months).
As the passage of time proved him right, the increase in chip capacity
(and consequent decrease in cost) has become known as Moore’ law.
When Moore first made his prediction, commercial chips contained fewer than 100 transistors.
By 2007, the number had reached into the hundreds of millions!
So will chips continue doubling their capacity ever to years?
According to more, “It can’t continue forever.
The nature of exponential is that you push them out and eventually disaster happens.”
Of course, that assumes that chips continue to be made in the same way.
New manufacturing processes (like 3-D stacking, in which multiple chips are sandwiched together) could radically accelerate how fast processing power doubles.
Who knows? Maybe a few months from now, you brand spanking new flash drive will be obsolete!