Slide 2 of 46
Notes:
It is also important to note historically that many of the major developments that have shaped the commercial silicon industry over the past quarter century have been seeded by military investments. The captive, commercial tools and techniques were improved and were made available to the public at large, including the military. LSI Logic and the commercial ASIC industry have their roots in the VHSIC program, as do a number of important industrial standards. Many of the algorithms, the tools that embody them, and design methodologies, along with a number of architectural innovations, owe their existence in large part to HPC and the Microelectronics programs.
There are many reasons for the various commercial players to maintain the status quo, while criticizing their suppliers or their customers for not being open minded or investing enough in new innovations.
One of the major goals of this study was to predict a number of possible industrial scenarios for silicon, based on forces at work today and likely in the future, to evaluate some classes of military need and the likelihood they will be met by commercial interests. We wanted to assess the research and development needs that might lead to quantum breakthroughs of the sort seen in previous generations of silicon and how they might ensure military access to the state of the art.
