During 2011, there will be (90%) various discoveries (at least 2) of phenomena that will be announced as potentially leading towards much faster computers. However, the current wall of 3 to 4 GHz for the basic CPU clock speed of consumer-level computers will (95%) remain.
Since the mainstream desktop processors of 2011 are already in development, it's easy to make predictions about them. More cores, better voltage and frequency scaling and clock gating, improved inter-core resource sharing, and tighter CPU/GPU integration in some AMD chips. Let's say 95% for each of those.
On mobile devices -- smartphones, tablets, and so on -- we're going to see some movement toward dual-core processors, mostly ARM Cortex-A8 and (on higher-end devices) Cortex-A9. The big thing in that space for 2011, I predict, will be cheaper all-in-one ch... (read more)
As we did last year, use this thread to make predictions for the next year and next decade, with probabilities attached when practical.
Happy New Year, Less Wrong!