> What are the forces in chip design that are at play here?
The "weak form" of Moore's Law--"Performance doubles every 12-18 months"--is dead and buried.
The "strong form" of Moore's Law is still active--"Transistor cost halves every 12-18 months".
This means that you can't make the primary paths any faster. So, all you can do is add functionality and pray that someone magically can make that functionality relevant to the primary use cases.
The "weak form" of Moore's Law--"Performance doubles every 12-18 months"--is dead and buried.
The "strong form" of Moore's Law is still active--"Transistor cost halves every 12-18 months".
This means that you can't make the primary paths any faster. So, all you can do is add functionality and pray that someone magically can make that functionality relevant to the primary use cases.