Moore’s Law

Today, we carry computers around with us in our pockets and backpacks and use them for virtually everything. They are our connection to the world beyond the people we see in daily life and allow us to learn and divulge information without ever stepping into a classroom. How are we able to accomplish so much with these miniature, efficient, and reliable devices? It all began with the advent of the computer into society and the steadily cheaper price of computers until they became less of a commodity and more of a necessity.

In 1965, a man named Gordon Moore working for Intel predicted that the microprocessors of computers would drastically improve in a pattern every two years. In other words, the transistors which process all of the data and information for a computer would become smaller, faster, and more reliable. These technological improvements, according to Moore, would in turn make computers available to the vast majority of the public. They would not be used just by scientific research facilities with piles of money, but they would be in the house- and pocket- of nearly every individual.

Many of Moore’s contemporaries doubted his prediction, claiming that Moore’s Law was an inaccurate and lofty estimate. However, every year the technological advancements seemed to further prove Moore’s Law. As for the future past 2020, the likelihood of Moore’s Law continuing to prove true till the end of time is low- something that he has addressed recent concerns over. Realistically and scientifically speaking, there are physical limits to how small a microprocessing chip can become.

Fuller’s Knowledge Doubling Curve