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 8086 processor, introduced in 1978, had 29,000 transistors, and their Itanium processor, introduced in 2002, had 220,000,000 transistors, on average how long has it taken for processors to double the number of transistors they use.
A) 1.9 years
B) 0.8 years
C) 16.0 years
D) 0.4 years

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Moore's Law originally observed that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles approximately every two years. From 1978 to 2002 is 24 years. If we start with 29,000 transistors and double that number approximately every 1.9 years, we get close to the 220,000,000 transistors on the Itanium processor, aligning with Moore's Law's observation.

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