THE HISTORY

Key Milestones in Moore's Law History

1965

The Original Observation

Gordon Moore publishes his observation in Electronics Magazine, predicting annual doubling of transistor counts on chips.

1971

Intel Co-Founded

Moore co-founds Intel, which becomes the primary proving ground for his prediction over the following decades.

1975

Revised to 24 Months

Moore revises the doubling period from one year to approximately every 24 months, the version that became the canonical law.

1990s

Industry Adopts as Roadmap

Semiconductor industry formally aligns R&D investment cycles and manufacturing roadmaps around Moore's Law as a planning target.

2010s

Physical Limits Emerge

Engineers begin encountering the physical limitations of silicon at atomic scales, slowing the pace of traditional transistor density gains.

Recent

Law Holds, Then Slows

As noted by TechRadar, Moore's Law held up for many years before engineers finally reached the physical limitations of silicon in the last decade or so.