Understanding Moore's Law: Four Decades of Innovation

The rise of semiconductor electronics, and the underlying manufacturing technology for them, is among the most important developments in world history of the past half-century. Integrated circuits-silicon chips-have transformed communication, transportation, commerce, military force, and culture. Clearly, insights into the dynamics that have brought us this silicon revolution are vital to our understanding of the world today and our common future. This new book places the silicon revolution in a broad context and charts Gordon Moore's development of his eponymous law across its 40-year life. Over the past four decades, Moore's law has served as a remarkable guide to the dynamics of the silicon revolution. With the proliferation of silicon chips into nearly every aspect of contemporary life, Moore's law is increasingly looked to as a bellwether for the whole of technological development.

David C. Brock is a Senior Research Fellow with the Chemical Heritage Foundation. As a historian of science and technology, he specializes in oral history, the history of instrumentation, and the history of semiconductor science, technology, and industry.