Driving Semiconductor Innovation: Moore’s Law at Fairchild and Intel

Abstract

Gordon Moore designed Moore’s Law as a multifunctional tool to drive process and product innovation, sell Fairchild’s and Intel’s microchips, and outcompete other semiconductor firms. Because Intel’s ability to stay on Moore’s Law depended upon other corporations developing materials and manufacturing equipment for exponential scaling, Moore and his closest associates heavily promoted Moore’s Law in the microelectronics community. They also established the national and international technology roadmaps for semiconductors in order to set the direction and cadence of innovation in microelectronics at the national and, later, global scales. Moore’s and his successors’ relentless pursuit of Moore’s Law and their deft management of the roadmaps significantly reinforced Intel’s competitiveness and helped it to dominate semiconductor technology and industry until the mid-2010s.