The Multiple Lives of Moore´s Law

A HalF Century Ago, a young engineer named Gordon E. Moore took a look at his fledgling industry and predicted big things to come in the decade ahead. In a four-page article in the trade magazine Electronics, he foresaw a future with home computers, mobile phones, and automatic control systems for cars. All these wonders, he wrote, would be driven by a steady doubling, year after year, in the number of circuit components that could be economically packed on an integrated chip. A decade later, the exponential progress of the integrated circuit-later dubbed "Moore\´s Law" - showed no signs of stopping. And today it describes a remarkable, 50-year-long winning streak that has given us countless forms of computers, personal electronics, and sensors. The impact of Moore\´s Law on modern life can\´t be overstated. We can\´t take a plane ride, make a call, or even turn on our dishwashers without encountering its effects. Without it, we would not have found the Higgs boson or created the Internet. But what exactly is Moore\´s Law, and why has it been so successful? Is it evidence of technology\´s inevitable and unstoppable march? Or does it simply reflect a unique time in engineering history, when the special properties of silicon and a steady series of engineering innovations conspired to give us a few decades of staggering computational progress?