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Who says we have to use transistors? Moore's Law says nothing about transistors.

• Retric 4y ago
  Mores law is specifically about transistors: “Moore's law is the observation that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit (IC) doubles about every two years.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore's_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore's_law
  • withinboredom 4y ago
    Huh, this is the definition I have: Moore's Law is the prediction that the speed of computer processors doubles every 18 months.
    • Retric 4y ago
      That’s a common misunderstanding, you can read the original quotes but to summarize: The observation is named after Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel (and former CEO of the latter), who in 1965 posited a doubling every year in the number of components per integrated circuit,[a] and projected this rate of growth would continue for at least another decade. In 1975, looking forward to the next decade, he revised the forecast to doubling every two years, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 41%. While Moore did not use empirical evidence in forecasting that the historical trend would continue, his prediction held since 1975 and has since become known as a "law". The speed of processors actually increased much faster than the number of transistors on a chip until recently. Smaller transistors used to mean both faster switching speeds and the ability to get more done per instruction cycle. The difference between the days of a 4 bit Intel 4004 and a 32Bit 486 was vast.