Moore's law
/ˈmʊəz lɔː/ /ˈmɔːz lɔː/Computing
noun
A broad principle relating to the rate at which the density of transistors in integrated circuits, and hence the power and miniaturization of computers, is expected to increase with advances in microchip technology, originally predicted by Moore as approximately doubling every year (now modified to approximately every two years).
- Moore's law is often expressed loosely in terms of an exponential rate of increase of some measure of computing power other than the density of logical elements, e.g. the number of microinstructions processed per second, the number of logical elements per square centimetre, the computing power or memory available for a given price, etc. Its applicability in any form is restricted by the approaching physical barrier of atomic and particle size..
Origin
1970s; earliest use found in Science. From the name of Gordon Earle Moore (b. 1929), U.S. microchip manufacturer, who first proposed the idea + law.