Gordon E. Moore, Intel Co-Founder Behind Moore's Law
Gordon Moore, a pioneer in the microprocessor field and a co-founder of Intel, once the largest semiconductor manufacturer in the world, passed away at the age of 94.
Moore passed away on Friday at his home in Hawaii, according to Intel and Moore’s family philanthropic foundation. He was surrounded by family. Gordon E. Moore is an American businessman, engineer, and co-founder of Intel Corporation.
He is best known for his 1965 prediction that the number of transistors on a chip would double every two years a phenomenon now referred to as Moore’s Law. His pioneering work in semiconductor electronics has had a profound impact on modern computing technology and he remains one of Silicon Valley’s most influential figures today.
Moore was born in San Francisco, California in 1929 and grew up during the Great Depression era with his parents who were teachers at local schools. After graduating from high school he attended college at UC Berkeley where he earned both bachelor’s degrees in chemistry & physics and a master’s degree in engineering.
In 1968 Gordon founded Intel Corporation with Robert Noyce which quickly became one of the leading companies within the computer processing industry due to its innovative designs utilizing integrated circuits or “microprocessors” as they are commonly called today – this design revolutionized computers making them faster than ever before while also significantly reducing their size & cost compared to traditional models prior to this time period.
Throughout his career Gordon received numerous awards recognizing him for accomplishments such as being inducted into the National Inventors Hall Of Fame 2000 receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from IEEE Computer Society 2006, becoming an Honorary Fellow Of British Computer Society 2008 & even having an asteroid 2637 named after him! Despite all these accolades, it can be argued that no single accomplishment stands out more than when Time Magazine listed him among the 100 Most Influential People Of The 20th Century – clearly demonstrating how much respect & admiration people have towards Gordon E Moore even decades later
He predicted that the tendency would continue, and his law later revised to every two years was named in his honour. In order to guarantee that the rule of thumb held true, it prompted Intel and other chipmakers to aggressively target their R&D budgets.
Moore predicted that integrated circuits will result in “such miracles as house computers – or at least terminals connected to a central computer,” automatic controls for autos, and personal portable communications equipment more than 40 years before Apple released the iPhone.
After Moore’s essay, the efficiency and cost of chips increased exponentially, driving most of the world economy. The internet, personal computers, and Silicon Valley behemoths like Apple, Facebook, and Google were all made possible by technical advancement during the past 50 years.
Moore said that being at the right place at the right time was advantageous in a 2005 interview. “I was fortunate enough to enter the semiconductor industry at a relatively young age.
I had the opportunity to advance from the time when we were unable to make even a single silicon transistor to the time when we could pack 1.7 billion of them onto a single chip!
The journey has been amazing. Nvidia Inc., one of Intel’s competitors, has recently claimed that Moore’s Law is no longer true because improvements in chip manufacturing have stalled.
Yet, despite manufacturing difficulties that have led Intel to lose market supremacy in recent years, current Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger has said he believes Moore’s Law still holds as the company invests billions of dollars in a turnaround push.
According to Morris Chang, the founder of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd TSMC the largest contract chipmaker in the world, Moore was a great and well-respected friend for more than 60 years. Executives at Intel praised Moore profusely.
Every person on the earth has had their life affected by the legacy he leaves behind. His legacy will endure,” tweeted Gelsinger.
Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, wrote in a tweet that Moore’s vision motivated so many of us to pursue technology, while Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, referred to Moore as one of Silicon Valley’s founding fathers.
Cook wrote on Twitter, Those of us who followed owe him a duty of appreciation. May he find eternal peace.
