TLDR: Moore's Law is an observation made by Gordon Moore in 1965, stating that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles approximately every two years, leading to exponential increases in processing power and reductions in cost per transistor. This principle has been a driving force behind the rapid advancement of computing technology, influencing hardware design, manufacturing, and innovation across industries. Though not a physical law, it has served as a benchmark for technological progress.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law

The exponential growth described by Moore's Law has enabled significant advancements in computing power, miniaturization, and energy efficiency. Innovations like the transition from planar to 3D transistor structures and the development of 5 nm process technology have extended the relevance of Moore's Law despite technical challenges. This trend has fueled breakthroughs in fields such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and mobile devices, where higher performance and lower power consumption are critical.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/history/museum-gordon-moore-law.html

However, the physical limitations of materials and manufacturing processes have led to debates about the end of Moore's Law. Factors such as quantum tunneling, heat dissipation, and increasing production costs pose significant challenges to maintaining the pace of transistor scaling. In response, the industry has shifted focus to alternative approaches, including multi-core architectures, specialized processors like GPUs and TPUs, and emerging technologies like quantum computing. While the traditional interpretation of Moore's Law may slow, its legacy continues to shape the evolution of computing.

https://www.amd.com/en/corporate/moores-law

“Many of today’s personal computers can perform billions of calculations in one second — more than a human can perform in a lifetime. Supercomputers are already performing thousands of trillions (quadrillions) of instructions per second. The Japanese Fugaku supercomputer can perform over 442 quadrillion calculations per second (442.01 petaflops).¹⁾ To put that in perspective, the Fugaku supercomputer can perform in one second about 40 million calculations for every person on the planet! And supercomputing “upper limits” are growing quickly.” (Cpp20Deit 2022)

“Every year, you probably expect to pay at least a little more for most products and services. The opposite has been the case in the computer and communications fields, especially with regard to the hardware supporting these technologies. Over the years, hardware costs have fallen rapidly.” (Cpp20Deit 2022)

“For decades, computer processing power approximately doubled inexpensively every couple of years. This remarkable trend often is called Moore’s law, named for Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel and the person who identified the trend in the 1960s. Intel is a leading manufacturer of processors in today’s computers and embedded systems, such as smart home appliances, home security systems, robots, intelligent traffic intersections and more. Moore’s law and related observations apply especially to:

• the amount of memory that computers have for programs and data,
• the amount of secondary storage they have to hold programs and data, and
• their processor speeds — that is, the speeds at which computers execute programs to do their work.” (Cpp20Deit 2022)

Perf Key executives at computer-processor companies NVIDIA and Arm have indicated that Moore’s law no longer applies.25,26 Computer processing power continues to increase but now relies on new processor designs, such as multi-core processors.

25. “Moore’s Law Turns 55: Is It Still Relevant?” Accessed November 2, 2020. https://www.techrepublic.com/article/moores-law-turns-55-is-it-still-relevant.

26. “Moore’s Law Is Dead: Three Predictions About the Computers of Tomorrow.” Accessed November 2, 2020. https://www.techrepublic.com/article/moores-law-is-dead-three-predictions-about-the-computers-of-tomorrow/.

Fair Use Sources:

• B08F9G5LVX (Cpp20Deit 2022)