Skip to main content

After fifty years, is Moore’s Law set to become obsolete?

Gordon Moore: Thoughts on the 50th Anniversary of Moore’s Law
Fifty years ago yesterday, a paper by Intel Corporation co-founder Gordon Moore was published in Electronics magazine. Moore observed that the amount of transistors in an integrated circuit would double each year — a trend that has endured since the article was written.

You can see Moore’s Law in action across the tech landscape; laptops getting smaller, the ever-increasing capabilities of smartphones, the enormous advances being made in medical equipment. Moore predicted this course, but he also helped influence it, as his paper has been used in the transistor industry to help model future developments and establish long-term goals.

To celebrate the milestone, Intel has released a specially commissioned interview with Moore via its YouTube channel. In the video, the company’s chairman emeritus discusses his reaction to the continuing legacy of his paper, alongside footage and imagery from throughout his storied career.

“It’s really had a lot more legs than the original paper had any right to deserve,” Moore says in the video.

There are rumblings, however, that Moore’s Law might be coming to the end of its relevancy. Projections have been prepared showing that growth in the number of transistors per circuit will soon begin to slow to below the rate that Moore’s Law identifies. In fact, as part of the anniversary press tour, Moore himself stated that he expects the Law to die off before the end of the decade in an interview with IEEE.

Still, the legacy of Moore’s Law — and of Gordon Moore himself — will endure far into the future. Through his paper and his work with Intel, Moore has done far more than most to contribute to the continuing evolution of computing. While Moore’s Law might not apply to the industry in twenty years’ time, the advances made during its tenure will be built upon for years to come.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Brad Jones
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Brad is an English-born writer currently splitting his time between Edinburgh and Pennsylvania. You can find him on Twitter…
Best printer deals: 10+ cheap printers on sale as low as $79
An HP OfficeJet Pro 9015e all-in-one printer rests on a white table with plants and a thumb drive beside it.

Even though going digital has become easier than ever, there is still a need to print, especially if you're a small or medium business. Luckily, the world of printers hasn't slowed down at all in the past few years, so whether you need to print character sheets for your D&D campaign or receipts for your business, there are a lot of printers to pick from. In fact, some of the best printer brands on the market have a lot of solid options, including in the budget range for those who don't need a ton of printing. And while it may be hard to find a good deal on the best printers, we're pretty sure our collection of deals will get you pretty close.
Canon Pixma TR4722 -- $79, was $99

While it isn’t one of the best all-in-one printers, it’s certainly one of the most affordable. There’s something to be said about a printer that can come in at such a low price yet still offer quality printing. This printer will work well in any home, apartment, or dorm room setting. It even goes beyond printing and is capable of making copies, scanning, and faxing. It connects easily to your devices with built-in wireless connectivity, and it can print at a rate of about nine pages per minute monochrome and four pages per minute color.

Read more
Save $450 on this 17-inch HP gaming laptop with an RTX 4060
An HP Omen 17 laptop on a desk.

Over at HP, there are some excellent gaming laptop deals with $450 off the HP Omen 17t gaming laptop. Usually it costs $1,700, but right now you can buy the gaming laptop for $1,250 so you save $450 off the regular price. A great deal for anyone who wants a mid-range gaming laptop for less, let’s take a look at what it offers before you tap the buy button below.

Why you should buy the HP Omen 17t
HP isn’t listed on our look at the best gaming laptop brands but it’s still well worth considering thanks to the Omen range being pretty good for gaming. This particular model has a 13th-generation Intel Core i7-13700Hx processor paired up with 16GB of memory and 512GB of SSD storage.

Read more
Best VPN deals: Save on NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and Surfshark
A close-up of a computer monitor displaying a generic VPN.

There are a lot of things online that might require the use of VPN, whether it's avoiding something like geoblocks, or trying to protect your identity online. Either way, VPNs have become ubiquitous these days, and some of the best VPN services provide you with a suite of services beyond just a VPN. That can include things like adblocking or, in the case of something like Proton, potentially a whole suite of services such as email and cloud storage. Whatever you're looking for, though, there's likely a great VPN for you, which is why we've gone and collected the best VPN deals across the board so that you don't have to do the extra legwork.

Nord VPN 12-month basic subscription -- $69, was $124

Read more