In 1965, Moore was working as the director of research and development (R&D) at Fairchild Semiconductor. He was asked byElectronics Magazine to predict what he thought might happen in the semiconductor components industry over the next ten years. In an article published on April 19, 1965, Moore observed that the number of components (transistors, resistors, diodes, or capacitors)[22] in a dense integrated circuit had doubled approximately every year and speculated that it would continue to do so for at least the next ten years. In 1975, he revised the forecast rate to approximately every two years.[23]Carver Mead popularized the phrase "Moore's law". The prediction has become a target forminiaturization in the semiconductor industry and has had widespread impact in many areas of technological change.[4][21]
In July 1968,Robert Noyce and Moore founded NM Electronics, which later becameIntel Corporation.[24][25] Moore served as executive vice president until 1975 when he became president. In April 1979, Moore became chairman and chief executive officer, holding that position until April 1987, when he became chairman. He was named chairman emeritus in 1997.[26] Under Noyce, Moore, and laterAndrew Grove, Intel pioneered new technologies forcomputer memory,integrated circuits, andmicroprocessor design.[25] On April 11, 2022, Intel renamed its main Oregon site, the Ronler Acres campus inHillsboro, as 'Gordon Moore Park', and the building formerly known as RA4, as 'Moore Center', after Gordon Moore.[27]
As of February 2023, Moore'snet worth was reported to be $7 billion.[28]
In 2000, Moore and his wife established theGordon and Betty Moore Foundation, with a gift worth about $5 billion. Through the foundation, they initially targeted environmental conservation, science, and the San Francisco Bay Area.[29]
The foundation gives extensively in the area of environmental conservation, supporting major projects in the Andes–Amazon Basin, including Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela and Suriname, as well as the San Francisco Bay area.[30][31] Moore was a director ofConservation International for some years. In 2002, he andConservation International senior vice president Claude Gascon received theOrder of the Golden Ark fromPrince Bernhard of the Netherlands for their outstanding contributions to nature conservation.[32]
Moore was a member of Caltech's board of trustees from 1983, chairing it from 1993 to 2000, and was a life trustee at the time of his death.[33][34][35] In 2001, Moore and his wife donated $600 million to Caltech, at the time the largest gift ever to an institution of higher education.[36] He said he wanted the gift to be used to keep Caltech at the forefront of research and technology.[29]
In December 2007, Moore and his wife donated $200 million to Caltech and theUniversity of California for the construction of theThirty Meter Telescope (TMT), expected to become the world's second largest optical telescope once it and theEuropean Extremely Large Telescope are completed in the mid-2020s. The TMT will have a segmented mirror 30 meters across and be built onMauna Kea in Hawaii. This mirror will be nearly three times the size of the current record holder, theLarge Binocular Telescope.[37]
The Moores, as individuals and through theirfoundation, have also, in a series of gifts and grants beginning in the 1990s, given some $166 million to theUniversity of California, Berkeley to fund initiatives ranging from materials science and physics to genomics and data science.[38][39][40]
Moore received many honors. He was elected a member of theNational Academy of Engineering in 1976 for contributions to semiconductor devices from transistors to microprocessors.[43]
In 1990, Moore was with theNational Medal of Technology and Innovation by PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush, "for his seminal leadership in bringing American industry the two major postwar innovations in microelectronics – large-scale integrated memory and the microprocessor – that have fueled the information revolution".[44]
In 1998, he was inducted as a Fellow of theComputer History Museum "for his fundamental early work in the design and production of semiconductor devices as co-founder of Fairchild and Intel".[45]
In 2001, Moore received theOthmer Gold Medal for outstanding contributions to progress in chemistry and science.[46][47] Moore was also the recipient of thePresidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor, as of 2002.[48] He received the award from PresidentGeorge W. Bush.[49] In 2002, Moore received theBower Award for Business Leadership.[50]
Moore was awarded the 2008IEEE Medal of Honor for "pioneering technical roles in integrated-circuit processing, and leadership in the development of MOS memory, the microprocessor computer, and the semiconductor industry".[52] Moore was featured in the 2011 documentary filmSomething Ventured, in which he said about Intel's first business plan, "It was one page, double spaced. It had a lot of typos in it."[53]
Moore met his wife, Betty Irene Whitaker, in 1947 during a student government conference at theAsilomar Conference Grounds.[60] They married in 1950,[61] and Moore became a father to two sons: Kenneth Moore (b. 1954) and Steven Moore (b. 1959).[62]
Moore was an avid fisherman since childhood, and he traveled extensively with his wife, sons, or fellow colleagues to catch species such as bass, marlin, salmon, and trout.[63] He said his conservation efforts were partly inspired by his interest in fishing and his time spent outdoors.[64]
Moore died at his home inWaimea, Hawaii on March 24, 2023, aged 94.[66] He was remembered by theSan Francisco Chronicle as a "Silicon Valley icon who co-founded Intel."[67] The Intel CEO at the time,Pat Gelsinger remembered him as someone who, "defined the technology industry through his insight and vision."[68]
^abcBrock, David C.; Lécuyer, Christophe (January 20, 2006).Gordon E. Moore and Jay T. Last, Transcript of an Interview Conducted by David C. Brock and Christophe Lécuyer at Woodside, California on 20 January 2006. Chemical Heritage Foundation.
^Moore, Gordon Earle (1954).I. Infrared Studies of Nitrous Acid, The Chloramines and Nitrogen Dioxide II. Observations Concerning the Photochemical Decomposition of Nitric Oxide (PhD thesis). California Institute of Technology.ProQuest302028299.
^Moore, Gordon E. (Summer 1994)."The Accidental Entrepreneur"(PDF). Engineering & Science. pp. 23–30.Archived(PDF) from the original on January 8, 2015. RetrievedJanuary 8, 2015.
^abBrock, David C., ed. (2006).Understanding Moore's law : four decades of innovation. Chemical Heritage Press.ISBN9780941901413.
^Rothberg, J. M.; Hinz, W.; Rearick, T. M.; Schultz, J.; Mileski, W.; Davey, M.; Leamon, J. H.; Johnson, K.; Milgrew, M. J.; Edwards, M.; Hoon, J.; Simons, J. F.; Marran, D.; Myers, J. W.; Davidson, J. F.; Branting, A.; Nobile, J. R.; Puc, B. P.; Light, D.; Clark, T. A.; Huber, M.; Branciforte, J. T.; Stoner, I. B.; Cawley, S. E.; Lyons, M.; Fu, Y.; Homer, N.; Sedova, M.; Miao, X.; Reed, B. (2011)."An integrated semiconductor device enabling non-optical genome sequencing".Nature.475 (7356):348–352.doi:10.1038/nature10242.PMID21776081.
Brock, David C.; Lécuyer, Christophe (January 20, 2006).Gordon E. Moore and Jay T. Last, Transcript of an Interview Conducted by David C. Brock and Christophe Lécuyer at Woodside, California on 20 January 2006. Chemical Heritage Foundation.
Moore, Gordon E. (Summer 1994)."The Accidental Entrepreneur"(PDF).Engineering & Science. pp. 23–30. RetrievedJanuary 8, 2015.
Kaplan, David A. (September 24, 2012)."Gordon Moore's journey".Fortune. RetrievedJanuary 8, 2015.
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