Several more considerations which favour progress in computing:
Even if Moore’s law will stop, we could still produce more chips on existing fabs, and they will be much cheaper, as there will be no expenses on intellectual properties and no amortisation costs needed to develop better fabs and chips.
As the total size of the world economy is growing, relative price of a large computer is smaller.
Cloud computing allows researchers not to pay in advance for hardware which may or may not be effectively used.
Data centres are expensive, so smaller physical size of a computer is important as well as smaller energy consumption, even if it has the same price for flops. But larger data centres are more cost efficient.
Several more considerations which favour progress in computing:
Even if Moore’s law will stop, we could still produce more chips on existing fabs, and they will be much cheaper, as there will be no expenses on intellectual properties and no amortisation costs needed to develop better fabs and chips.
As the total size of the world economy is growing, relative price of a large computer is smaller.
Cloud computing allows researchers not to pay in advance for hardware which may or may not be effectively used.
Data centres are expensive, so smaller physical size of a computer is important as well as smaller energy consumption, even if it has the same price for flops. But larger data centres are more cost efficient.