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Equation 5 · Part 1 · After Moore: The Adaptive Radiation of Compute

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10−1510^{-15}
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What this part means

A raised number can be a power. When it is a label or bound, it selects a case or the upper limit of a sum; the formula’s structure distinguishes these uses.

Its job in the formula

A raised mark can be a power or an index. Its position and the surrounding notation determine which.

The passage around this formula

Measured against that floor, today’s mainstream logic is nowhere close, and the gap is large enough to state with confidence even given the uncertainty in any single measurement. The IRDS’s own 2023 logic-device electrical specifications table projects energy per switching event for a high-density logic cell at roughly 0.86 femtojoules in 2023, declining only to roughly 0.4 femtojoules by its 2037 projection even after the roadmap’s full projected run of gate-all-around and CFET architecture transitions [ 4 ] . A femtojoule is 10^{-15} joules; the Landauer bound at 300 kelvin is roughly 2.9×\times10^{-21} joules. Even the roadmap’s best-case 2037 projection is therefore still more than five…

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Learn the underlying idea

An exponent tells how a base is used in multiplication. In x³, x is the base and 3 is the exponent: x³ = x × x × x.

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Sources cited in the surrounding passage

These citations provide research context; check each source for the exact claim it supports.