Who was Gordon Moore? 10 things to know about the Intel co-founder

In addition to founding one of the world’s largest computer processor companies, Moore is also known for his prediction regarding the exponential growth of computing power termed as the ‘Moore’s Law’.

10 things to know about the Intel co-founder: 

1) Gordon Earle Moore was born in San Francisco on Jan. 3, 1929

2) Moore earned his Ph.D. in chemistry and physics from California Institute of Technology in 1954.

3) After a brief research career, Moore joined Silicon valley’s first semiconductor company Shockley Semiconductor in 1956 where he met his future Intel co-founder Robert Noyce.

4) Moore along with Noyce and six other colleagues departed from Shockley Semiconductor and launched Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957. 

5) At Fairchild, Moore played a key role in the production of the world’s first diffused silicon transistors and commercially viable integrated circuits.

6) In 1968, Moore and Noyce started a memory chip company called Integrated Electronics which later came to be known as Intel. 

7) In 1965, Moore predicted that the number of transistors on microchips would double roughly every year due to improvements in technology. This became known as Moore’s Law. 10 years later, Moore revised his prediction to a doubling of transistors on an integrated circuit every two years.

8) In 1979, Intel appointed Moore as their CEO and Chairman of the Board. He became chairman emeritus in 1997 and retired from Intel in 2006.

9) Along with his wife, Betty, the Intel co-founder established the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation in 2000, which focuses on environmental conservation, patient care, and scientific research worldwide.

10) Moore received America’s highest civilian award Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W Bush in 2002.