Algorithms For Dummies

Transforming Power into Data

In 1965, Gordon Moore, cofounder of Intel and Fairchild Semiconductor (two giant 

companies that produce electronic components for electronics and computers), 

stated in an Electronics magazine paper entitled “Cramming More Components 

Onto Integrated Circuits” that the number of components found in integrated 

circuits would double every year for the next decade. At that time, transistors 

dominated electronics. Being able to stuff more transistors into a circuit using a 

single electronic component that gathered the functionalities of many of them (an 

integrated circuit), meant being able to make electronic devices more capable and 

useful. This process is integration and implies a strong process of electronics min-

iaturization (making the same circuit much smaller, which makes sense because 

the same volume should contain double the circuitry as the previous year).

As miniaturization proceeds, electronic devices, the final product of the process, 

become smaller or simply more powerful. For instance, today’s computers aren’t 

all that much smaller than computers of a decade ago, yet they are decisively more 

powerful. The same goes for mobile phones. Even though they’re the same size as 

their predecessors, they have become able to perform more tasks. Other devices, 

such as sensors, are simply smaller, which means that you can put them 

everywhere.