Gordon Moore is an entrepreneur, computer scientist and businessman better known as the co-founder and chairman of the famous Intel Corporation. He also invented the Moore’s Law which was published in Electronics Magazine in 1965.
Moore was born on 3rd January 1929 in San Francisco, California. He attended University of California and graduated with a degree in Chemistry in 1950. In 1954 he did his PhD in Chemistry and a Physics minor from the California Institute of Technology. Moore had never thought of becoming an entrepreneur; he wanted the peaceful life of an academic however the future held other plans for him. Moore was one of the ‘traitorous eight’ that left the Caltech alumnus to create ‘Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation’. In 1968 he co-founded NM Electronics with Robert Noyce that went on to become ‘Intel Corporation’, a name that almost everyone is familiar with. Intel is the pioneer of microprocessor production and currently it is the largest computer chip producer in the world. Since the very beginning both Moore and Noyce had big plans for the company. With their determination and insight they succeeded in achieving their dream. Gordon Moore remained the executive vice president of the company till 1975, when he became the president with Andrew S. Grove. Four years later Moore assumed the positions of Chairman of the Board and the CEO where he remained till 1987. In 1997 he was titled Intel Corporation’s ‘Chairman Emeritus’.
Since 1996 Moore has been doing his duties as the member of Board of Directors of Gilead Sciences. Before that he was a member of its Business Advisory Board from 1991. He was the Chairman of the California Institute of Technology and presently it’s Life Trustee. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Engineering and member of the National Academy of Engineering. He became a Fellow of the Computer History Museum in 1998.
Gordon Moore has also donated a substantial amount of money to Caltech which is the largest donation to be received by the institute. He said that his wish is to see Caltech leading in the fields of technology and research which is why he and his wife donated the large sum of $600 million to it. In 2007 they gave Caltech a sum of $200 million for building of the largest telescope of the world. Moore has been awarded many times for his immense contributions. He was given the highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, by George W. Bush and the National Medal of Technology. He received the Bower Award for his business leadership skills. In 2008, he was awarded with the IEEE Medal of Honor.
Moore’s net worth in 2011 was estimated to be $4 billion. This successful engineer, manager and entrepreneur, is a pivotal personality on the world of computers. His ‘Moore’s Law’ has been a big inspiration for the semi-conductor industry for more than forty years. Moore is credited for making computers common and durable much like TV sets. His inventive engineering played a big role in making Intel a success and bringing about the revolution in personal computers.
