Moore's law

E32615

empirical observation technological prediction

Moore's law is an observation and prediction that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit—and thus computing power—tends to roughly double at regular intervals, driving exponential growth in digital technology.

Aliases (3)

Statements (54)

Predicate	Object
instanceOf	empirical observation → technological prediction →
appliesTo	integrated circuits → microprocessors → transistor density →
assumes	continuous advances in semiconductor fabrication → improvements in manufacturing yield → shrinking transistor feature sizes →
coreIdea	computing power tends to double at regular intervals → number of transistors on an integrated circuit doubles at regular intervals →
describes	exponential growth of transistor counts → scaling of integrated circuit complexity → trend in semiconductor technology advancement →
effectOn	computing performance → consumer electronics → cost of computation → digital electronics → economic growth in tech sector → information technology industry → innovation pace in computing →
field	computer hardware → computer science → electronics → semiconductor industry →
formulatedBy	Gordon Moore →
formulationYear	1965 →
growthType	exponential growth →
industryRole	benchmark for technology scaling → planning tool for chip designers → roadmap for semiconductor manufacturers →
influenced	International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors → data center capacity planning → economic models of computing costs → microprocessor design strategies → software development expectations →
limitation	constrained by economic costs of fabrication plants → constrained by physical limits of miniaturization → constrained by power and heat dissipation →
metric	cost per transistor → transistor count per chip → transistor density →
modernView	continued performance gains via parallelism and specialization → slowing of transistor scaling in recent process nodes →
namedAfter	Gordon Moore →
originalArticleTitle	Cramming more components onto integrated circuits →
originalPublication	Electronics magazine →
originalTimeInterval	every 1 year →
relatedConcept	Dennard scaling → Koomey's law → Wirth's law → technology scaling →
status	empirical trend rather than physical law →
timeInterval	approximately every 18 months → approximately every 2 years →

Referenced by (6)

Subject (surface form when different)	Predicate
Gordon E. Moore →	formulated
Intel Museum ("Moore's Law exhibit") →	hasExhibit
Cramming more components onto integrated circuits →	introducesConcept
Gordon E. Moore →	knownFor
Ray Kurzweil ("law of accelerating returns") →	notableIdea
Intel Museum ("Moore's Law") →	subjectArea