Establishing Moore's Law

Every field has brief formulas or relationships that are useful for back-of-the-envelope calculations. Rarely do these maxims become popular knowledge; even more rarely do they become as ubiquitous and influential as Moore's law, the 40-year-old prediction that the speed of computers will double every year or two. Here, a look at the way in which the legendary law evolved into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Technical Components of Moore's Law

The law itself may have changed, but one constant throughout the varying formulation of Moore's law is that all formulations observe that the number of transistors per chip, also known as complexity, has been growing rapidly. Four main factors are responsible for most of this increase in chip density: die size, line dimension, technical cleverness, and technical innovation. Together, they serve to explain most of the exponential improvements in transistors per chip described by Moore's law.