Gordon Moore: A Biography

Gordon Moore (January 3, 1929 - March 24, 2023) is an American businessman, engineer, and co-founder of Intel Corporation. He is also known for his contribution to the development of the semiconductor industry and for Moore's Law, which predicts the doubling of the number of transistors on a microchip every two years.

Moore was born on January 3, 1929, in San Francisco, California. He grew up in nearby Pescadero, a small town on the coast. His parents were modest farmers, and his father was also a handyman who repaired various mechanical and electrical devices. From a young age, Moore showed a keen interest in science and technology, often tinkering with his father's tools and gadgets.

Moore attended Sequoia High School in Redwood City, where he excelled in mathematics and science. He also developed an interest in electronics and built his first radio at the age of 13. After high school, Moore enrolled at San Jose State University to study chemistry, but later switched to physics.

In 1950, Moore received his Ph.D. in physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). He then joined the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University, where he worked on the development of high-frequency radar systems for the U.S. Navy. In 1956, Moore joined Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, a division of Bell Labs, in Mountain View, California.

At Shockley, Moore worked on the development of silicon-based transistors, which were faster and more reliable than the existing germanium-based transistors. In 1957, Moore and six other researchers left Shockley to form Fairchild Semiconductor, a company that would become one of the pioneers of the semiconductor industry.

At Fairchild, Moore worked on the development of integrated circuits, which combined multiple transistors on a single chip. In 1968, he co-founded Intel Corporation with Robert Noyce, another Fairchild veteran. At Intel, Moore served as the executive vice president and played a key role in the development of the microprocessor, a device that would revolutionize the computer industry.

In 1975, Moore published his famous article, "The Intel 8080 Microprocessor and the MCS-80 Family", in which he predicted that the number of transistors on a microchip would double every two years, leading to exponential growth in computing power. This prediction, known as Moore's Law, has proven remarkably accurate over the past several decades and has become a guiding principle of the technology industry.

Moore retired from Intel in 1997 but has remained active in the field of science and technology. He has received numerous honors and awards, including the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 1990 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002. Today, Gordon Moore is widely recognized as one of the most influential figures in the history of the semiconductor industry.

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