Moore's Law

Moore's Law is the empirical observation that the number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit roughly doubles about every two years. First noted by Gordon Moore in 1965, it captures a consistent historical trend rather than a physical law; the statement is about a measured rate of progress in semiconductor manufacturing.

The concept matters because it provides a simple expectation for how quickly computational capacity—and consequently cost per unit performance—has improved over decades. Designers, investors, and policy makers have used that expectation to plan product roadmaps, forecast market dynamics, and argue for the transformative impact of ever‑more powerful computers on science, industry, and everyday life.

Moore's Law shows up whenever discussions touch on hardware scaling, performance budgeting, or technology strategy: from chip design cycles and data center planning to predictions about artificial intelligence capabilities and the economics of consumer electronics. Even as physical limits loom, the law remains a reference point for measuring how close current advances follow—or diverge from—the historic pace of transistor integration.