In 1965, Fairchild Semiconductor's R&D Director, Gordon Moore, noted that the maximum number of transistors that could be included cost effectively in one integrated circuit had been doubling yearly since 1959. While growth has not increased quite as quickly since 1965, it has still been exponential, and the continued exponential growth has become known as "Moore's Law". Considering that Intel's 4004 processor, introduced in 1971, had 2250 transistors, and their Pentium III processor, introduced in 1999, had 24,000,000 transistors, on average how long has it taken for processors to double the number of transistors they use.
A) 2.1 years
B) 0.6 years
C) 13.7 years
D) 0.3 years

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The number of transistors doubled approximately every 2 years, following the trend observed by Moore's Law. From 1971 to 1999 is 28 years, and if we calculate the doubling period (2^x = 24,000,000 / 2,250, where x is the number of times it doubled), we find that it doubled about 13 times. 28 years divided by 13 doublings gives an average of approximately 2.1 years per doubling.

In 1965, Fairchild Semiconductor's R&D Director, Gordon Moore, Noted That