Author(s)

Wenzhu Hou ¹, Lei Tian ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ Data Research Center, China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, Beijing, China

Corresponding Author

Lei Tian

ABSTRACT

As the guiding principle for the semiconductor industry over the past sixty years, Moore's Law has been shaken as geometric miniaturization approaches physical limits. In May 2026, Huawei officially proposed the τ Law at ISCAS 2026, advocating for time micro sampling instead of geometric micronation, and establishing the characteristic time constant τ as a unified optimization goal across twelve orders of magnitude from transistor switches to data center workloads. Through a systematic review of Huawei's practice and theory, this paper reveals a core proposition: the τ law is not about discovering nature's laws, but about engineering sustained performance under resource scarcity. It is not only a theoretical innovation but also a conscious practice of industrial knowledge production, providing a pioneering methodological framework for China to build an independent knowledge system in the integrated circuit field.

KEYWORDS

τ Law; Moore's Law; engineering issues; Industrial knowledge production

CITE THIS PAPER

Wenzhu Hou, Lei Tian. The τ Law: An Engineering Answer, Not a Scientific One. Industrial Engineering and Innovation Management (2026). Vol. 9, No. 1, 92-97. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/ieim.2026.090110.

REFERENCES

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