Moore's Law

Moore's Law is the term commonly used to describe the 1965 prediction by Intel Corporation co-founder Gordon Moore that the number of transistors on a chip will double about every two years.

Background

When Moore in 1965 observed that the number of components on integrated circuits seemed to double regularly, this fact was known to many people working in the area. Indeed, it took over a decade, during which Moore had become the co-founder of Intel and its President and CEO, before this observation was called Moore's Law.

Examples Using Intel Processors

The following table shows the progression of the number of transistors embedded in a single Intel Chip over time:

Year	Intel Chip Model	# of Transistors
1971	4004	2,300
1974	8080	4,500
1978	8086	29,000
1982	i286	134,000
1985	i386	275,000
1989	i486	1,200,000
1993	Pentium	3,100,000
1995	Pentium Pro	5,500,000
1997	Pentium II	7,500,000
1999	Pentium III	9,500,000
2001	Pentium 4 / Xeon	42,000,000
2002	Pentium M	55,000,000
2002	Itanium 2	220,500,000
2005	Pentium D	291,000,000
2007	Xeon	582,000,000
2007	Xeon (Penryn)	820,000,000

Additional Reading

Sixty Years of the Transistor - Intel
The Lives and Death of Moore's Law