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Born
Gordon Moore was born in Redwood City, California. -
BS in Chemistry
Gordon Moore transferred to UC Berkely after 2 years at San Jose State. -
Married Betty Whitaker
Moore met his wife at San Jose state and married her the day before leaving to Caltech; they remain married to this day, -
PhD in Chemistry
Moore received his PhD in Chemistry from Caltech. -
Hired by William Shockley
Gordon Moore was contacted out of the blue by William Shockley to be a part of the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, a division of Beckman Instruments company. -
Contacts Beckman about Shockley
Speaking on behalf of 7 top staffers at Shockely's Lab, Gordon contacts Shockley's Boss, Arnold Beckman. He warned that they would leave if Shockley remained in control. He had been employed for little more than a year. Image: Beckman and his wife, source: Chemical Heritage Foundation [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. -
Resigned from Shockley Labs
Though Beckman was initially sympathetic to Moore and his coworkers, he eventually reneged and sided with Shockley. Thus, Moore and the rest of the "traitorous eight" left Shockley labs. Image copyright: Magnum Photos. -
Co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor
Moore and the rest of the 'traitors' founded their company shortly after leaving Shockley's lab. They received funding from Sherman Fairchild and started the company to bring their new technologies to market. Fairchild Semiconductor would go on to become the largest producer of integrated circuits in the early 60s -
Writes "Moore's Law"
Moore made the observation in a trade journal that the number of components had doubled every year since their invention. He hypothesized that the the number would continue to double for another ten years. This is perhaps Moore's biggest claim to fame. Image: By Wgsimon (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons -
Left Fairchild Semi Conductor
Moore and Noyce, frustrated by the corporate leadership and mismanagement of the semiconductor business decided to leave Fairchild in 1968 and start their own company. -
Co-Founded Intel
Noyce and Moore start a new company to bring new technologies developed at Fairchild to market. This was originally called NM [Noyce Moore] Electronics, but was changed to Intel by the end of the month after they bought the name from Intelco, a hotel chain. Image of the first three employees of Intel: By Intel Free Press [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. -
Becomes President of Intel
In 1975, Moore became the CEO of Intel. He succeeded Noyce, and was the leader of Intel for 12 years. -
Revised Law
He revised Moore's Law in 1975, predicting that the yearly doubling would continue until 1980, at which point the doubling will take place every two years. -
Retires from Intel
He retires from Intel and takes the position of Chariman Emeritus in 1997. -
Establishes the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
His primary focus now is on philanthropy. He established his foundation with an initial gift of $5 billion. He has donated hundreds of millions to caltech. His focus on conservation work stems from his love of fishing. Image: By Steve Jurvetson from Menlo Park, USA (Moore Fish) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
