19th April 1965
Moore's Law is first proposed

In April 1965, Dr Gordon Moore noticed that microchip capacity seemed to double every 18 to 24 months. This rate of increase later became known as Moore's Law.

Moore outlined his theory in a paper in Electronics magazine volume 38, number 8, April 19, 1965 entitled "Cramming more components onto integrated circuits". In this paper, written when an integrated circuit contained fewer than one hundred transistors, Moore made his prediction that ten years later there would be 65,000 components on a single silicon chip, equating to a doubling of transistor density every year.

Remarkably, this prediction has held true for over 50 years. The law has been one of the factors driving development in the semiconductor industry. Some see it almost as a self-fulfilling prophecy - the law sets the timetable for where manufactures must be if they are to compete.

Related information:

• The Centre for Computing History: Gordon Moore
• The University of Texas at Austin: Cramming More Components onto Integrated Circuits (PDF), paper by Gordon Moore.

Image:

• Graph illustrating Moore's Law
  Credit: © 2015 A. Ostendorf and K. König, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0.