Moore’s Law was created by one of the most important trailblazers in electronics and computing, but do you even know Moore’s first name? Most people working in technology are familiar with Moore’s Law. It predicts a doubling in computing power every eighteen months by doubling the amount of transistors that can be created on a silicon wafer. However, Moore’s other history changing contributions often go unrecognized.

Gordon Moore grew up in a tiny town called Pescadero, which is just a few miles from today’s well known Silicon Valley. From an early age, Gordon was interested in chemistry and chemical reactions. He attended San Jose University and transferred to University of California, Berkeley to finish his Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry. He then received a Ph.D in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology. After spending a few years on the east coast, he was invited by William Shockley to join his company exploring the world of transistors. Working for Shockley proved to be difficult because of Shockley’s personality and management style. As a result, Moore and seven of his coworkers split from Shockley to start a new company, Fairchild Semiconductor.

Moore was critical in the success of Fairchild Semiconductor and was laser focused on finding a way to reliably mass produce the first mesa transistor. His background in chemistry and interest in developing the ultimate silicon printing press led to the successful release of his mesa transistor in 1958. It was a huge success, and was instantly being purchased for all types of military and commercial uses. Soon after, the more reliable planar transistor was developed by Fairchild and saw even greater success across the industry. Fairchild Semiconductor and Gordon Moore solidified their spot in electronics when they placed four transistors on a single wafer of silicon in 1960, thus creating the first ever silicon integrated circuit. The fundamental building block our world now revolves around.  

While Moore was at Fairchild, he released several papers discussing his vision of computing power growth. He foresaw a rapidly increasing computational ability fueled by cramming more and more transistors on a single silicon wafer. He predicted the speed and cost of electronics would have an indirect correlation due to production improvements and lowering material prices. In 1965, he predicted future homes would be full of transistors. From refrigerators, to clocks, to thermostats, he saw a future where people would be completely surrounded by transistor powered electronics. In 1965, Gordon Moore predicted our world as we know it today. A world with the internet of things, and everything from appliances to automobiles being controlled by tiny nano-sized transistors.

After growing tired of transistors and wanting to push further into the integrated circuit arena, Moore along with his fellow “traitorous eight” member, Robert Noyce, left Fairchild Semiconductor. The two would become co-founders of one of the great microchip powerhouses of the computer revolution – Intel. Moore went from being head of R&D at Fairchild Semiconductor – a company that completely revolutionized the production processes of transistors – to running the Intel Corporation. Under his direction, Intel conquered the markets of RAM and ROM, becoming a leader in both. Later, Intel started creating integrated circuits with billions of transistors on one chip and thus created the logical processor we know and love today – the CPU.  

Gordon Moore’s contributions to computers and electronics go way deeper than the law that bears his name. He had a hand in almost every major step forward in the computing industry from the 1950’s until the early 2000’s. Even with his contributions and Moore’s Law, most people do not know who Gordon Moore is. Just compare his information lacking Wikipedia page to the likes of Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, or Steve Jobs. A true unsung hero, highly underrated in the computing revolution that changed the world forever. To read more about Gordon Moore, I highly recommend reading this book.