CoE 141 THUSCDE

27 January 2015

Moore: More or Less

Darvy Pea Ong, 2012-15776
Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute
University of the Philippines, Diliman

AbstractThis paper aims to discuss the origin and

development of what is known as Moores Law, the impact of
this principle in the semiconductor industry, and its possible
implications with the rise of the More Than Moore principle.

Index TermsMoores Law, More Than Moore

I.

INTRODUCTION

OORES Law is a principle that states that the number

of
transistors in an integrated circuit will double
approximately every two years. This implies that processor
speeds, or overall processing power for computers will double
every two years. In addition to this, the concept also requires
that the process be such that production costs are held at a
minimum.

II. MORE THAN JUST MOORE

For the last few decades, Moores Law, with its promises of
lower manufacturing costs for chip production along with
different process by which the size of ICs are steadily
minimized(to 45nm and below), has been the driving force in
the microelectronics industry. However, the demand for
semiconductors with both digital and non-digital components
has steadily increased in the more recent years, thus
prompting the development of a new trend in the development
of Integrated Circuits.
This trend is different from the More Moore trend, which
follows the original concept of minimization from Moores
Law, in that non-digital components and functionalities are
now being integrated into semiconductor-based devices. And
while these functionalities can be minimized as with Moores
Law, it doesnt necessarily mean that they scale at the same
rate in which digital components do. This is due to the fact
that extreme scaling (or minimization) in the digital world
work well with microprocessing and memory capabilities, but
when it comes to the world of analog devices, it isnt as
effective.

Figure 1. Transistor Count vs Year Semilog Plot

The term Moores Law was named after Gordon E.
Moore, co-founder of the Intel Corporation, who had
described in an article he wrote for the 35 th anniversary issue
of Electronics magazine in 1965 his observation that the
increase in the number of components per chip had doubled
every year since the release of the first commercial planar
transistor in 1959.
In 1975, Moore integrated the progress data from the past
ten years and reformulated his observation, stating that the
doubling of the number of transistors per chip has slowed
down to around two years instead of one year. This prediction,
however, was a bit too pessimistic, since in the years that
followed this revision, it was observed that the doubling in the
number of transistors per chip doubled around every 18
months.

Figure 2. More Moore and More Than Moore

Nowadays, there are many different non-digital devices
that are commonly used in ICs, such as radio frequency (RF)
devices, power management subsystems, passive
components,
biochips,
sensors,
actuators,
microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). These so called
added functionalities encompass the trend that is More Than
Moore.

CoE 141 THUSCDE

III. MOORE IN THE FUTURE

In this day and age, microelectronics have steadily evolved
from what it once was, all the while slowly steering away from
what used to define the limits of this field, Moores Law. The
semiconductor industry has become a cornerstone of our
society. Semiconductors with non-digital functionalities are
becoming increasingly integrated in everything. They are
used to implement electronic systems and services which can
perform tasks ranging from transportation to healthcare, and
from general broadcasting to electronic banking.

Figure 3. Intelligent Systems requiring both Digital and

Non-digital Functionalities

With the speed in which these devices are being developed,

it wont be long before we shift past the era of
microelectronics and into the world of nanoelectronics, which
will make the semiconductor industry even more valued than
it is today. It will allow much more intelligence and greater
interactivity to be built into many more everyday items around
us, with the result that silicon chip technology will play an
even bigger role in virtually every aspect of life, from
healthcare and traffic control to public security.

IV. CONCLUSION
For more than 40 years, the semiconductor industry focused
on developing and commercializing ICs according to Moores
Law, which led to many breakthroughs in the field of IC
development. In addition to this, with the discovery of the
More Than Moore principle, the microelectronics industry
has revolutionized the integration of semiconductor chips in
our lives.
REFERENCES
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Moores Law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law

Moores Law or how overall processing power for computers will
double every two years http://www.mooreslaw.org/
The Paradigm of More Than Moore
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=1564646
Analog/Mixed-Signal Semiconductor Foundry: More Than Moore
http://www.more-than-moore.com/index.php?id=1221
More Than Moore White Paper
http://www.itrs.net/Links/2010ITRS/IRC-ITRS-MtM-v2%203.pdf
Fifty Years of Moores Law
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=5696765
Moores Law: The First Ending and a New Beginning
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6689258