Along with other accelerating aspects of technology, of course
processors have to keep in step. There has been a recent trend
towards “mulcoth” architectures … multi-core, multi-threaded.
This is where a single “chip” that is placed in your computer might
actually contain “multiple cores” (multiple processors) and that these
processors would then provide “multi-threading” or “hyperthreading”
within them. What this give you is the equivalent of a
multi-processor machine inside of that single chip.

Much of the progress towards “mulcoth” processors was due to heat
issues as we continue to push up the speed of processors. So
instead of one giant “even faster” processor, you’ll be using machines that have
multiple cores … or multiple processors … running at current speeds in that one chip in your
computer.

I caught this article that shows where we are going to begin to track
the progress of newer approaches to breaking the speed limit on
processors. Photon Processors.

Look out … the future is coming quickly …

Production of Photon Processors Expected in 2006 [Slashdot:]