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MENTAL MODEL · M4294

Grosch's Law

Grosch's Law
BusinessHigh supportEconomics
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Version 1.0.0 · Updated 2026-07-30

CORE DEFINITION

Proposed in the mainframe era, it holds that computer performance increases with the square of cost (i.e., spending twice as much yields four times the computing power). This implies that centralized computing (mainframes) is more economical than distributed computing (multiple smaller machines).

SCAFFOLDING EFFECT

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Although broken by Moore's law in the microcomputer era, it has made a comeback in the cloud computing era. It explains why the internet ultimately trends toward centralization (monopoly by giants), because hyperscale data centers have irreversible economies of scale in computing power and energy efficiency.

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Grosch's law: the value of a computer increases with the square of its scale (processing power), or unit cost decreases with scale, advocating that centralized mainframes are more economical.

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Source support: Explicit

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    en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grosch%27s_lawZH · Explicit
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