Nanoelectronics in retrospect, prospect and principle

The paramount economic development of the past half-century has been the information revolution (IR). It has given us the personnel computer, the multi-media cell phone, the Internet, and countless other electronic marvels that continuously influence our lives.. The most powerful technological driver of the IR has been the silicon microchip, for two compelling reasons: First, since 1960 the productivity of microchip technology has increased by the astounding factor of one billion times! Concurrently, the performance of microchips, for example of a microprocessor chip, has increased by a factor of approximately one million times since the early 1970s. These two concurrent exponential advances sustained over decades are unmatched in technological history. Consequently, the salient objective of this discussion is to provide an incisive overview of the advance of microchips, in retrospect since 1960, in prospect from 2010 through 2024, and in principle for several following decades.