Gordon Moore's Journey: 'Moore's law' dissected

Gordon Moore may be best known for Moore's law, which states that 'the number of transistors on a microchip doubles every two years while the cost per transistor decreases.' While Moore's law has been known since the 1960s, it is not well known what led Moore to make this prediction, albeit the concept of Moore's law has been the fundamental engine for the manufacturing and commercialization of the microchips in the semiconductor industry for the last 60 years. This article briefly describes the journey that Moore took before and after he wrote Moore's Law, along with the evolution of the semiconductor industry, which followed his prediction and continues to follow Moore's law today. © 2009-2012 IEEE.