What kind of chips will we see post Moore's law in consoles?  Optical, holographic, or side-by-side layering?  Smaller consoles due to nanotech lithography? 

Personally, I believe consoles will fall by the wayside much like they did in the early 90's because by then consoles will have nothing to offer besides name brand gaming.  It is one of those "the circle is complete" moments when consoles can't really do much more at the risk of being extraordinarily expensive to outdo their counterparts-- i.e., PS3 launch.

So you're suggesting that there is a time at which technology will not be able to advance any further - or at least not at the pace it's had for the past hundred years.

I don't even know where to begin in terms of explaining how wrong you are. I'm not even a tech guy!

No, I am suggesting that consoles will be more or less on par with PCs no matter how they launch.  It plays into the rationale that the uncanny valley of production that is never getting smaller.

halogamer, damn you. i come on to this site to escape my Uni work

I just finished a presentation on CMOS diodes and the continuation of Moore's Law. Since it was first posited in 1963, Moore's law has always been believed to only be valid for 10-20 more years. It is still believed to be valid for 10-20 more years

Seeing a pattern? Obviously Moore's law has a limit, the use of a single electron as a transistor is probably an unscalable barrier. But The limit will not be reached any time soon.

i can go into more detail into future production processes that will allow for Moore's law to continue if you really want an engineering lesson

Sorry scottie! I am obviously a nerd then-- this interests me!!! What do you have on this if you have a minute?

Then you're going to have to explain what you mean by "falling by the wayside".

The real problem with this whole idea is that it's NOT any technical achievement that allows consoles to remain viable despite the presence of PCs.

Consoles have and ALWAYS will have certain key features that NO PC will EVER have:

1) Hardware specs that remain consistent through every console of the same type. Every Wii can play every Wii game, Every 360 can play every 360 game. There is no minimum specs, or incompatible graphics card because they are designed SPECIFICALLY for that system.

2) Ease of Use - Sorry, but the whole point of playing a game is to have fun. A console is designed with that specific purpose at the forefront of its design (at least any good console is) This means that playing the game needs to be as hassle free as possible. 90% of PC games require you to install something, or at least manually organize the files to run the game, and often require you to set graphic options for the game to run smoothly. With consoles, it's typically "put game in, start playing"

3) Controls - Don't care how much you like the keyboard and mouse. a controller, either dual analog or the Wiimote + whatever the heck attachment you want, will always be more comfortable to use, and allow for faster, more natural response. When the game is designed specifically around those controls, they will always be better than generic controls that have to adapt to multiple types of input.

4) "It is not the console that sells the games, it is the games that sells the console" 3rd parties might be porting to as many platforms as possible, but Nintendo games have always stayed on Nintendo consoles and I don't see that changing any time soon

You may notice that my examples pull heavily from Nintendo. Really, it's cause I see what you're talking about when using 360 and PS3 as examples. They both seem to be far more PC than console, with how the games are run and played, as well as the graphical focus of the games, and how there's so much focus on non-game media as well.
Nintendo has managed to turn all of that totally around, by using what is essentially outdated tech and creating a custom experience. No PC is going to incorporate a standard motion controller that would allow for those type of games that the Wii is capable of so therefore those games will only ever be found on a console specifically designed for them.

I got distracted halfway through typing this, so I'll sum up.

PCs and computers in general can really only advance in whatever direction they are already set in. There are too many different companies for any innovation to have any impact on the PC community as a whole. This is where consoles can shine, as any innovation can be incorporated 100% into that console, because of a consoles focus on gaming, and doing it in a low hassle manner, combined with the freedom of innovation is what will always keep PCs from overshadowing consoles as a gaming device, regardless of technological advancements.

The question is this. Will consoles survive a transition to centralised computer systems in a house and general purpose processers which remove the need for seperate graphics processers?

What will happen when we can't tell the difference between 15 fps and 30 fps? Wait we can't tell the difference? But i swear that nerd down the street says he sees that difference... what happens when we dont see a difference in graphics? between 300 resolution and 500?

^Scottie I'm interested as well, I just read a wiki article on Moore's law, didn't quite understand most of it, but it seems very cool.