I think as computers fail to get faster, we won't be able to improve performance without making application specific logical units, however, we may still be able to make it general purpose.
Circuit design has been marching steadily along for decades, and between the tools available to allow non-specialists to go from abstract hardware description to image-ready chip specification and the ever-cheapening, ever-broadening capabilities of custom chip fab, are we approaching an era where fabricating mid-range specialized circuits is on par with the difficulty of writing and compiling software, only a bit slower?