While three-dimensional chips -- also a feature of Ivy Bridge -- and parallel processing can potentially delay the collapse of Moore's Law, Kaku said that these workarounds will eventually reach their limits as well.

That said, the CCNY physicist asserted that new forms of computing may yet allow processing power to resume its speedy upward climb. Molecular transistors, which Kaku described as the use of molecules shaped like valves to represent binary states, hold a great deal of promise, but current fabrication techniques aren't up to the challenge of mass production. Quantum computers could eventually become still more powerful, but these are even less well understood.

Kaku is far from alone in predicting a dramatic change in the nature of Moore's Law. Everyone from to to no less than has at one point or another played taps for the venerable theory.

Email Jon Gold at jgold@nww.com and follow him on Twitter at @NWWJonGold.

in Network World's Data Center section.