Gordon E. Moore, Co-Founder of Intel and Creator of Moore's Law, Passes Away at Age 94

Back in the 1960s, he made a forecast regarding the speedy growth of computer chip technology which paved the way for the high-tech era.

Posted on March 24, 2023 and revised on March 25, 2023 at 3:26 a.m. Eastern Time.

Gordon E. Moore, one of the founders and ex-top executive of Intel Corporation, the chip maker that played a pivotal role in establishing the reputation of Silicon Valley, has passed away at the age of 94 at his residence in Hawaii. Intel has outshone other industrial behemoths in the past, such as the mighty American railroad or steel firms.

Intel and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation have verified his passing, however, the exact cause of his death is undisclosed by the sources.

Together with a small group of co-workers, Mr. Moore played a vital role in making laptops accessible to millions of individuals and integrating microprocessors into a wide range of items, including bathroom scales, toasters, toy fire trucks, cellphones, vehicles, and planes.

Mr. Moore's initial dream was to become a teacher, but he was unable to secure a position in education. Instead, he referred to himself as the Accidental Entrepreneur. By investing just $500 in the fledgling microchip industry, he went on to become a billionaire. This breakthrough transformed electronics into one of the world's most significant industries.

According to his colleagues, he was the one who predicted the future. Back in 1965, he came up with Moore's Law which stated that the quantity of transistors that could fit on a single silicon chip would double regularly in the foreseeable future, thereby leading to a massive increase in the data-processing capabilities of computers.

He later included two additional ideas related to his theory. One was that as technology progressed, the cost of producing computers would increase while the price for consumers would decrease due to high demand. Moore's Law remained relevant for many years.

Mr. Moore and his partner, Robert Noyce, used their intelligence, management abilities, charm, and connections to bring together a team known for their daring and innovative expertise in the field of technology. This group has earned high praise and admiration from many.

This was the gang that suggested using silicon's paper-thin chips, which are treated with chemicals and polished to perfection. Silicon is one of the most abundant resources available on the planet. It turned out that silicon is a fantastic host for tiny electronic circuits that can work faster and faster as they get smaller.

During the mid-1980s, American manufacturers regained their dominance in computer data-processing with the help of Intel's silicon microprocessors, which serve as the brains of computers. This allowed them to surpass their formidable Japanese rivals. As a result of this breakthrough technology, Intel became the most successful semiconductor company in history by the 1990s, with their microprocessors being utilized in 80% of all computers worldwide.

Most of this occurred during the time when Mr. Moore was in charge. He held the position of chief executive from 1975 to 1987, and was followed by Andrew Grove. Mr. Moore continued on as chairman until 1997.

When Mr. Moore's riches increased, he also became a significant player in charitable acts. In the year 2001, he and his spouse founded the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation by generously donating 175 million Intel shares. They also bestowed a staggering sum of $600 million to the California Institute of Technology, which was the biggest contribution ever made to an educational institution at that time. The foundation's holdings now surpass $8 billion and it has gifted over $5 billion since its initial establishment.

During interviews, Mr. Moore displayed his trademark modesty regarding his accomplishments, specifically the technological progress enabled by Moore's Law.

During an interview with journalist Michael Malone in 2000, he conveyed his belief that semiconductor devices were the future route towards financially accessible electronics. He aimed to emphasize this message. In hindsight, his prediction turned out to be remarkably accurate, surpassing his initial expectations.

Mr. Moore not only made an estimation that electronics would decrease in price as the industry moved towards silicon microchips instead of discrete transistors and tubes, but his prediction was so accurate that technology companies relied on it to shape their product plans. This is why Moore's Law became a significant factor in the technology world.

Harry Saal, a veteran entrepreneur from Silicon Valley, stated that any company that aims to plan for multiple years using logic must take into account this pace of transformation; otherwise, they risk being overwhelmed.

Arthur Rock, a close friend of Mr. Moore and an initial investor in Intel, stated that Moore's Law is the legacy that Mr. Moore has left behind, rather than Intel or the Moore Foundation.

On January 3, 1929, Gordon Earl Moore came into this world in San Francisco. His childhood took place in Pescadero, a charming little town located south of San Francisco. His father, Walter H. Moore, served as deputy sheriff and his mother, Florence Almira Williamson, came from a family that owned the local general store.

Mr. Moore went to study at San José State University where he met Betty Whitaker, a student studying journalism. They got married in 1950. During the same year, he completed his studies at the University of California, Berkeley and earned a degree in chemistry. In 1954, he earned a doctorate in chemistry from the Caltech.

When Mr. Moore was job hunting, he tried to get a manager position at Dow Chemical. The company had him meet with a psychologist to evaluate if he was a good fit for the job. According to Mr. Moore's 1994 writing, the psychologist deemed him suitable in terms of skills but thought he lacked the ability to manage anything.

After working at the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, Mr. Moore sought a return to California. He went for an interview at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, located in Livermore, California. They offered him a job, but he declined the offer as he was not interested in taking spectrums of detonating atomic bombs, which led him to write about it.

Instead, Mr. Moore began working with William Shockley, the creator of the transistor, at a West Coast department of Bell Laboratories in 1956. This particular unit was established with the objective of producing an affordable silicon transistor.

Shockley Semiconductor Company struggled while being led by Mr. Shockley who lacked the necessary business management skills. In the year 1957, Mr. Moore and Mr. Noyce were part of a group of individuals who departed from the company and became known as "the traitorous eight". They each contributed $500 and received $1.3 million in funding from Sherman Fairchild, a pioneer in aviation. Together, they founded the Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation, which became renowned for its innovation in producing integrated circuits.

In 1968, Mr. Moore and Mr. Noyce were inspired to become entrepreneurs and established their own company that specialized in semiconductor memory. They created a business plan that Mr. Moore described as very broad.

During a 1994 interview, he stated that they would be collaborating with silicon to develop captivating products.

Despite their unclear proposition, they easily secured financial support.

Having amassed a grand total of $2.5 million in funding, the founders, Mr. Moore and Mr. Noyce, went ahead and christened their start-up with the name Integrated Electronics Corporation. Eventually, they opted for a shorter version, Intel. The third individual to join the young company was Mr. Grove, a Hungarian immigrant of relatively tender years, who happened to have been under Mr. Moore's employ over at Fairchild.

The three men had difficulty deciding which technology to prioritize. Eventually, they agreed on an upgraded model of MOS - metal oxide semiconductor - technology commonly called silicon-gate MOS. They opted to replace aluminum with silicon to boost the transistor's pace and compactness.

Luckily, we stumbled upon a technology that was just challenging enough to launch a successful start-up," stated Mr. Moore in 1994, as he recounted the beginnings of Intel.

During the beginning of the 1970s, Intel's 4000 series was responsible for starting a personal computer revolution through its "computer on a chip" technology. However, Intel themselves did not take advantage of the chance to produce a PC. Mr. Moore partially blamed his own lack of foresight for this missed opportunity.

A while back, an engineer approached me with the idea that Intel should create a computer designed specifically for residential use. I was initially skeptical and asked the engineer, "Why would anyone even need a computer in their own home?" - this was way before the emergence of Apple.

However, he had a vision of what was to come. back in 1963, while overseeing research and development at Fairchild, Mr. Moore wrote a book chapter describing what would evolve into his now-famous law, without providing specific numbers. Just two years down the line, he wrote an article in Electronics, a popular trade magazine, called "Squeezing More Components onto Integrated Circuits."

David Brock, one of the authors of "Moore's Law: The Life of Gordon Moore, Silicon Valley's Quiet Revolutionary," stated that the article made the identical point as the book chapter but included a clear, quantitative forecast.

According to Mr. Brock, there isn't much proof that the article received much readership upon its initial release.

"According to Mr. Brock, he frequently delivered speeches using various charts and graphs. As a result, people became fascinated with his presentations and began to utilize his slides and replicate his diagrams. Subsequently, individuals began to observe the occurrence. It was noted that the cost of silicon microchips decreased while their intricacy increased."

Back in the 1960s, when Mr. Moore started working in electronics, a lone silicon transistor was sold for $150. After a while, $10 was enough to purchase over 100 million transistors. At one point, Mr. Moore expressed that if the progression of vehicles kept pace with computers, "they would get 100,000 miles to the gallon and it would be more economical to purchase a Rolls-Royce than pay for parking. (Cars would also be a mere half inch in length.)"

The family members who are still living after Mr. Moore's passing are his wife, and two sons named Kenneth and Steven. Additionally, there are four grandchildren who also survive him.

Back in 2014, Forbes approximated Mr. Moore's total wealth to be around $7 billion. However, he always maintained a humble and simple appearance, showing a preference for old and ragged shirts and khaki pants instead of fancy custom-made suits. He was a regular customer at Costco, and he kept a collection of fishing equipment, including fly lures and fishing reels, on his office desk.

Moore's Law will eventually come to an end because engineers are facing restrictions due to physical limitations and the high expenses involved in constructing factories that can successfully reach the next level of reducing size. And over the past few years, the rate of reducing sizes has decreased.

In a 2005 interview with Techworld magazine, Mr. Moore expressed his views on the eventual conclusion of Moore's Law by commenting on it occasionally. He explained that it couldn't go on indefinitely and that pushing the exponentials too far would eventually lead to disaster, citing the nature of exponential growth.

In the year 2017, Holcomb B. Noble, who used to work as the science editor for The Times, passed away.