Supercomputers and exponential growth

[Bla]

Look at this graph, it shows how our computers have grown more powerful since 1938. First in OPS (operations pr. second) in blue, then FLOPS (floating point operations pr. second) in red.
Imagine how it might be in 50 years...

[deoxy99]

Whoa, look at the blue, it stays nearly the same and then...it shoots up.

[Bla]

Try to follow the blue through the red from 1944, for the rest of the time it looks like there is a slight exponential growth even within the logarithmic scale.

[atomic7732]

Oh my gosh, but that's like my P.E. Teacher thinking it will continue forever like that, it has to end somewhere.

My P.E. teacher says "If you ran 9 minutes first time, and you get 7 minutes the last time, you should be able to get 5 minutes this time" That implies 3 minutes next time, 1 minute next time... ON A MILE!

It's more like an inverted square root graph (y=-sqrt(x))

[Bla]

Yes, it has to end somewhere. I think I read that the exponential growth in computers reaches it's limit in 80 years if it continues like this though, so there's plenty of room for improvements.

[blotz]

2012 update