Chapter 6: Moore's Law and More: Fast, Cheap Computing, and What This Means for the Manager

1: While Gordon Moore's paper originally stated that Moore's Law meant a doubling of transistor density roughly every two years, and some suggest a doubling every two and a half years, the managerial definition of Moore's Law that you'll often see appearing in the trade press is: .

Chip performance per dollar doubles every 18 months.

2: Moore's Law typically applies to _.

microprocessors and chip-based storage

3: The _ is considered the brain of a computing device.

microprocessor

4: The price/performance improvements in Moore's Law apply to:

Silicon based computing and storage components

5: Storage that retains data even when powered down is called:

nonvolatile memory

6: Which of the following is the temporary storage that provides fast access for executing computer programs and files?

Random-access memory

7: Silicon chips are preferred over solid state electronics devices which are more likely to fail and draw greater amounts of power.

false

8: Cameras, MP3 players, USB drives, and mobile phones often use _ which holds data even when the power is off.

flash memory

9: Flash memory is non-volatile memory.

true

10: Flash memory is solid-state memory.

true

11: Which of the following refers to a substance such as silicon dioxide that is used inside most computer chips and is capable of enabling as well as inhibiting the flow of electricity?

Semiconductor

12: The price/performance curves shown in this chapter allow the manager to calibrate precise estimates on future computing capabilities and costs.

false

13: is the rate at which the demand for a product or service fluctuates with price change.

price elasticity

14: Technology products are considered to be price inelastic.

false

15: The phrase is often used to refer to the emergence of technology in products where low-cost sensors, computing, and communication put embedded smarts in all sorts of mundane devices so that these products can communicate with one another for data collection, analysis, and collective action.

The Internet of Things

16: Technology such as the Vitality Corp. GlowCap applies technology to:

improve patient adherence to prescription schedules.

17: An exabyte is bigger than a petabyte

true

18: Firms that manufacture products where silicon-based components represent a large portion of the product's cost of goods are likely to carry as little inventory as possible because:

depreciation rates of chip-based electronics are high.

19: The advancing price/performance curve of technology is empowering the planet. Underscoring this, economist Jeffrey Sachs has stated that " is the single most transformative technology for world economic development."

the cell phone

20: Moore's Law occurs because:

the distance between pathways inside silicon chips is getting smaller.

21: In the chip industry, 'fabs' are:

chip manufacturing factories

22: Microprocessors with two or more (typically lower power) calculating processor cores on the same piece of silicon are known as:

multicore processors.

23: Multicore processors have been a boon to technology firms, since any software executing on a multi-core system runs faster by a multiple of the number of cores (e.g. quad core chips run traditional software 4 times as fast).

false

24: Moore's Law will likely come to an end during your lifetime.

true

25: The Kickstarter effort Cognitoy was able to get supercomputer smarts inside a child's toy by leveraging IBM's Watson Cloud.

true

26: With _, firms place special software on its existing PCs or servers that enable these computers to work together on a common problem.

grid computing

27: The multiple-brain approach to solving problems is not suitable for problems:

that are linear.

28: _ refers to replacing computing hardware that a firm might otherwise purchase with a service delivered online.

Cloud computing

29: Discarded, often obsolete, technology is more generally known as _.

electronic waste

30: Rapid obsolescence of technology products contributes to the growing problem of e-waste management.

true

31: Which of the following facts is true with respect to the current electronic waste scenario?

There is more gold in one pound of electronic waste than in one pound of mined ore.

32: The process of separating out the densely packed materials inside tech products, so that value in e-waste can be effectively harvested is an extremely _ process.

labor-intensive

33: Managers looking for advice on properly dealing with obsolete technology hardware can:

consult the e-Stewards program
AND
seek advice from the International Association of Electronics Recyclers
AND
look for partners with ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certifications
AND
investigate resources provided by the Basel Action Network
SO…
ALL OF THE ABOVE

34: Which of the following is a benefit from MyMagic+?

cutting turnstile transaction time
AND
increasing the amount of money guests spend in park
AND
allowing the park to serve more customers
AND
reducing the likelihood that frustrated customers will leave for a rival Orlando theme park.
SO…
ALL OF THE ABOVE

35: Creating MyMagic+ was easy because systems were built from scratch, minimizing the amount of work integrating the new effort with existing systems.

false

36: Another bonus of the system: since it was based on web technology and apps, costs were especially low, coming in under budget at less than $10 million total.

false

37: In an example of how Moore's Law and buying at scale can reduce costs, the original MagicBand prototype came in at around $35 but costs fell below $5 by rollout.

true

silicon wafer

A thin, circular slice of material used to create semiconductor devices. Hundreds of chips may be etched on a single wafer, where they are eventually cut out for individual packaging.

volatile memory

Storage (such as RAM chips) that is wiped clean when power is cut off from a device.

flash memory

Nonvolatile, chip-based storage, often used in mobile phones, cameras, and MP3 players. Sometimes called flash RAM, flash memory is slower than conventional RAM, but holds its charge even when the power goes out.

grid computing

A type of computing that uses special software to enable several computers to work together on a common problem as if they were a massively parallel supercomputer.

cluster computing

Connecting server computers via software and networking so that their resources can be used to collectively solve computing tasks

software as a service (SaaS)

A form of cloud computing where a firm subscribes to a third-party software and receives a service that is delivered online.

Internet of Things

A vision where low-cost sensors, processors, and communication are embedded into a wide array of products and our environment, allowing a vast network to collect data, analyze input, and automatically coordinate collective action.

latency

A term often used in computing that refers to delay, especially when discussing networking and data transfer speeds. Low-latency systems are faster systems.

fabs

Semiconductor fabrication facilities; the multibillion dollar plants used to manufacture semiconductors.

semiconductor

A substance such as silicon dioxide used inside most computer chips that is capable of enabling as well as inhibiting the flow of electricity. From a managerial perspective, when someone refers to semiconductors, they are talking about computer chips, and the semiconductor industry is the chip business.

microprocessor

The part of the computer that executes the instructions of a computer program.

random-access memory (RAM)

The fast, chip-based volatile storage in a computing device.

Moore's Law

Chip performance per dollar doubles every eighteen months.

massively parallel

Computers designed with many microprocessors that work together, simultaneously, to solve problems.

multicore microprocessors

Microprocessors with two or more (typically lower power) calculating processor cores on the same piece of silicon.

optical fiber line

A high-speed glass or plastic-lined networking cable used in telecommunications.

Supercomputers

Computers that are among the fastest of any in the world at the time of their introduction.

nonvolatile memory

Storage that retains data even when powered down (such as flash memory, hard disk, or DVD storage).

price elasticity

The rate at which the demand for a product or service fluctuates with price change. Goods and services that are highly price elastic (e.g., most consumer electronics) see demand spike as prices drop, whereas goods and services that are less price elastic are less responsive to price change (think heart surgery).

e-waste

Discarded, often obsolete technology; also known as electronic waste.

solid state electronics

Semiconductor-based devices. Solid state components often suffer fewer failures and require less energy than mechanical counterparts because they have no moving parts. RAM, flash memory, and microprocessors are solid state devices. Hard drives are not.

server farms

A massive network of computer servers running software to coordinate their collective use. Server farms provide the infrastructure backbone to SaaS and hardware cloud efforts, as well as many large-scale Internet services.

cloud computing

Replacing computing resources—either an organization's or individual's hardware or software—with services provided over the Internet.