Gordon Earle Moore

Gordon Moore background

Gordon Earle Moore was born on January 3, 1929 in San Francisco, California. He is an American co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of Intel Corporation and the author of Moore's Law. In 1950, he received a B.S. degree in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley and in 1954 he received his PhD in Chemistry and minor in Physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Prior to studying at Berkeley, he spent his freshman and sophomore years at San José State University, where he met his future wife Betty. Moore completed his post-doctoral work at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory until 1956.  He was married to Betty I. Whittaker on 9 September 1950.

What he have done?

Gordon E. Moore co-founded Intel Corporation in July of 1968, serving as Executive Vice President until 1975 when he became President and Chief Executive Officer. In April 1979, Moore became Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, holding that position until April 1987, when he became Chairman of the Board. He currently serves as Chairman Emeritus.

Moore joined the technical staff of the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University in 1953, where he did basic research in chemical physics. Shortly after its founding in 1956, he joined Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Palo Alto, California. There he worked with William Shockley, co-inventor of the transistor, in developing the state of the art in semiconductor processes applicable to transistors and integrated circuits.

Gordon E. Moore co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation in Mountain View, California in 1957, serving as Manager of the Engineering Department until 1959, when he became the Director of Research and Development. During this period, Fairchild perfected silicon planar epitaxial passivated transistor production, which became the salient process in silicon integrated circuit manufacturing.

In July 1968, he co-founded Intel Corporation with the intention of developing and producing large scale integrated products, beginning with semiconductor memories. Shortly thereafter, Intel produced the world's first microprocessor.

In the mid-1970s, Moore initially observed that the number of electrical elements per integrated circuit chip would double annually; subsequently this period was changed to 24 months. The discovery and enunciation of this observation, which became known as "Moore's Law;" enabled business and academic communities to estimate the future progress of integrated circuits.

According to Moore’s Law, the number of transistors on a chip roughly doubles every two years. As a result the scale gets smaller and smaller. For decades, Intel has met this formidable challenge through investments in technology and manufacturing resulting in the unparalleled silicon expertise that has made Moore’s Law a reality.

In a universe where smaller is better, Intel’s current process technology - the most advanced silicon process in volume production anywhere in the world - prints individual lines smaller than a virus and 1,000 times thinner than a human hair and manufactures microprocessors with some features as thin as five atomic layers.

As transistor counts climb so does the ability to increase device complexity and integrate many capabilities onto a chip. The cumulative impact of these spiralling increases in capability power the economy and the Internet, running everything from digital phones and PCs to stock markets and spacecraft, and enable today’s information-rich, converged digital world. Intel expects to continue driving the leading edge of Moore’s prediction well into the foreseeable future.