Gordon moore biography

Biography

Silicon Valley founding father Gordon E. Moore is a seminal figure in the history of computing. A successful engineer, entrepreneur, and manager, Moore is best known for three things: membership in the “Traitorous Eight”; cofounding Intel, Corporation; and being the prognosticator of “Moore’s Law,” which has been an inspiration for the semi-conductor industry for over 40 years. 

Moore was born on 3 January 1929 in San Francisco, California and spent his early years in the pastoral town of Pescadero, before his family moved to another Northern California town called Redwood City. As a child Moore developed a liking for mathematics and an interest in chemistry. Although he was a good student, throughout much of his high school career Moore was more interested in playing sports than hitting the books. It wasn’t until his senior year that he became serious about academics.

Upon graduation from Sequoia High School, Moore matriculated at San Jose State University, becoming the first member of his family to attend college. After two years at San Jose State he transferred to the University of California at Berkeley where he took a degree in Chemistry. He then went on to obtain a doctorate in Physics and Chemistry at CalTech.

Although Northern California is now an epicenter of technology, when Moore was finishing graduate school there were few high tech jobs available. He moved his family east to Maryland, where he took a position at Johns Hopkins University. As a researcher, Moore enjoyed his work, but the pragmatic side of his nature clashed with the university research culture: Moore wanted his work to result in something practical and useful.

Opportunity knocked in the person of William Shockley, the brilliant but contentious Bell Labs physicist who had co-invented the transistor in 1947. Shockley was ready to leave Bell Labs, return to his Northern California roots, and launch his

Architect of our Digital World

Gordon Earle Moore died on March 24, 2023, at the age of 94. Moore was a man of parts, with wide-ranging talents and accomplishments. His most longstanding commitments were those to his family—as husband of 73years to Betty I. Moore and as father to sons Ken and Steve Moore—to the study of science and technology, and to sport fishing. Moore was also a PhD chemist, semiconductor manufacturing technologist, self-described “accidental entrepreneur,” industrial R&D leader, corporate executive, venture investor, and philanthropist.

Moore is perhaps most widely known for the phenomenon of “Moore’s Law,” the developmental dynamic in silicon microchips that, for over a half-century, resulted in exponential increases in the complexity and functionality of microchips with accompanying exponential decreases in the cost of digital electronics. This dramatic increase in the functionality and affordability of digital electronics in the form of the silicon microchip has been foundational to the widespread use of digital electronics and computation globally, and in all areas of society and culture, thereby producing our contemporary digital world. Through roles in technology and business leadership at the two most important silicon microchip firms to date—Fairchild Semiconductor and the Intel Corporation—both of which he cofounded, Gordon Moore served as a key architect of our digital world.

Origins

Born on January 3rd, 1929, in San Francisco, Moore spent his first decade in the coastal farming village of Pescadero, north of Santa Cruz on the San Francisco Peninsula. Moore’s family had been the first Anglo settlers of the village in the 1840s, and for the most of his life he lived and worked within a forty-mile radius of his childhood home. Moore’s father was a deputy sheriff, and his

Born January 3, 1929, San Francisco, Calif.; with Robert Noyce, developer of the semiconductor chip; cofounder and chairman, Intel Corporation.

Education: BS, chemistry, 1950; PhD, chemistry and physics, California Institute of Technology, 1954.

Professional Experience: technical staff, Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, 1953-1956; staff member, Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, 1956-1957; Fairchild Semiconductor Incorporated: founder, director of engineering, 1957-1959, director of research and development, 1959-1968; Intel Corporation: founder, executive vice president, 1968-1975, president and chief executive officer, 1975-1987, chairman of the board, 1987-present.

Honors and Awards: fellow, IEEE, 1968 member, National Academy of Engineering, 1976; AMPS Harry Goode Award, 1978; W.W. MacDowell Award, IEEE Computer Society, 1978; IEEE Frederick Philips Award, 1979; IEEE Computer Society Pioneer Medal, 1984; Medal for the Advancement of Research, American Society of Metals, 1985; Founders Award, National Academy of Engineering, 1988; National Medal of Technology, US Department of Commerce, 1990.

Moore developed his research interest in extending the capabilities of transistors while at Johns Hopkins University, and extended that by working closely with Robert Noyce after they departed Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory to found Fairchild Semiconductor Incorporated. This was a period when Moore was able to implement the concepts and ideas of Noyce to create "wireless clusters" of transistors which formed the basic idea of the "chip." They applied for a patent contemporaneously with Texas Instruments, and were able to convince the court to find in their favor The biggest boost to the chip and to Fairchild was the announcement in 1964 by IBM of System/360. In 1968 Noyce and Moore left Fairchild to found Intel Corporation and to manufacture memory and processor chips, and thereby created "Silicon Valley."

QUOTATION

American businessman (1929–2023)

For other people named Gordon Moore, see Gordon Moore (disambiguation).

Gordon Earle Moore (January 3, 1929 – March 24, 2023) was an American businessman, engineer, and the co-founder and emeritus chairman of Intel Corporation. He proposed Moore's law which makes the observation that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit (IC) doubles about every two years.

Early life and education

Gordon Moore was born in 1929 as the second son of Walter Harold Moore (a county sheriff stationed in San Mateo County) and Florence Almira "Mira" Williamson (a homemaker). When Moore started school in 1935, the faculty noted his introverted personality. His father accepted a promotion to deputy sheriff in 1938 and moved the family to Redwood City, California. In 1940, Moore received a chemistry set as a Christmas gift, which inspired him to become a chemist. From 1942 to 1946, Moore studied at Sequoia High School, where he was involved in athletic activities. From 1946 to 1947, Moore attended San José State College (now San José State University), studying chemistry. He transferred to University of California, Berkeley in 1948, taking courses from Glenn Seaborg, Melvin Calvin, and William Giauque. He graduated in 1950 with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry.

In September 1950, Moore enrolled at the California Institute of Technology ("Caltech"), where he would ultimately receive a Ph.D. in chemistry in 1954. Moore conducted postdoctoral research at the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University from 1953 to 1956.

Scientific career

Fairchild Semiconductor Laboratory

Main article: Traitorous eight

Moore joined MIT and Caltech alumnus William Shockley at the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory division of Beckman Instruments, but left with the "tra