Chip Industry Pioneer Gordon Moore Dies: Co-Founder of Intel and Predicting the Rise of the PC No Comment

“Integrated circuits would work wonders for home computers, or at least terminals connected to a central computer, automatic controls for cars, and portable and personal communications equipment.”

When Gordon Moore wrote such a paragraph in an article published in 1965 Electronic It’s a handful of years before the PC revolution or Microsoft or Apple takes action. Thanks to this perspective, the formulation of “Moore’s Law” and especially as the co-founder of Intel, Moore, lead role In the technological history of the 20th century.

He wrote his last personal chapter yesterday. The engineer and businessman died with his family at his home in Hawaii, as Intel himself and the eponymous foundation have confirmed. He was 94 years old. And it leaves a deep mark in the industry, making it a pioneer in the semiconductor industry.

An industry pioneer

His name is associated with two great achievements. Both are related to semiconductors, but in different fields: academic and commercial. Perhaps the best known of the two is the latter, which he won thanks to his prominent role in the founding of Intel, of which he co-founded. 1968 with his colleague Robert Noyce. Previously, both had embarked on the launch of Fairchild Semiconductor, a pioneer in transistor and integrated circuit manufacturing.

After joining Intel, Moore held a managerial role, first as executive vice president and then head of different positions from 1975 until becoming president honorary in 1997. He resigned in 2006 at the door of the 80s. From then on, she divided her time between California and Hawaii, leading the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

“Moore defined the tech industry through him. insight and vision. “He has been instrumental in unleashing the power of transistors and inspiring technologists and entrepreneurs for decades,” said Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger.

Its reflection connects other value Moore is often associated with and complements his profile as a pioneer and entrepreneur: the law named after him, formulated in 1965, which predicts that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit will double each year. In 1975 he revised his forecast and concluded that the doubling of transistors would occur every two years over the next decade.

As Intel remembers, both predictions share the same basic idea: chip technology will evolve at an exponential rate, allowing consumer electronics to become faster, smaller, and also cheaper than ever before. “I was trying to convey the message that we’re going to make all electronics cheaper by putting more stuff on a chip,” Moore said decades later in 2008.

His predictions have helped Intel and other chip makers invest heavily in research and development, but in recent years a rival to Intel such as Nvidia. slow down in chip manufacturing improvements, so Moore’s Law would have already been fulfilled.

Throughout his life, he has received outstanding accolades, such as the National Medal of Technology awarded by George HW Bush in 1990 or the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002. Its name is already associated with the 20th century, a stage in which Silicon Valley emerged and flourished.

Images: On Innovation (Flickr)