All computing is driven by one basic mandate: Go faster. It's easy to forget, when you're tuning SQL Server to optimize performance or fretting when it takes a few seconds longer than usual to open a file or retrieve a message, that everything depends on the processors inside the device containing data you're trying to access. Moore's Law—the well-known prediction attributed to Intel cofounder Gordon Moore that computing power doubles every 18 months—keeps us expecting faster and fas...