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www.us- tech.com


Tech-Op-ed July, 2015


SOUNDING OFF


By Walter Salm Editor


Moore’s Law at Age 50 I


t’s hard to believe that Moore’s law is 50 years old, but according to archives cited by IHS Technology (www.technology.IHS.com) 1965 was the year that Gordon Moore, Fairchild Semiconductor’s Research and De-


velopment Director, observed in a paper that the number of components per integrated circuit was doubling every year. In 1975, he revised his observa- tion to a doubling every two years, the current rate predicted by Moore’s Law. In 1968, Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce left Fairchild together to form


a new Silicon Valley company called Intel, where he soon made good on his prediction of doubling the number of transistors on a chip every two years. In- tel went on to become what is arguably the most important manufacturer of microprocessors in the world. The contributions of these early founders is put into an excellent perspective in The Innovators, a fascinating history of the evolution of computers and their associated technology, written by biographer Walter Isaacson. He took time out from writing this book to work on another project, writing his best-selling biography of Steve Jobs. My own professional life as a technology writer kept intersecting with


these developments, but I think a fascinating story told by Isaacson that hit close to home was about Les Solomon, the technical editor of Popular Elec- tronics magazine and his involvement with running a cover story on the Al- tair, an early hobbyist’s computer. Les was a good friend and it was during this period that Les and I would meet for lunch at a Japanese restaurant halfway between our offices at least twice a week. We were eating buddies, but we were also travel buddies going on press junkets together, and meeting at the inevitable plethora of press luncheons in Manhattan. Moore’s Law was driving microprocessor development and complexity,


and Intel’s ICs found their way into the heart of the vast majority of desktop personal computers that started to proliferate. My first involvement with this new technology was to implement a Dynabyte CP/M computer in the PR of- fice where I worked in 1980. The computer consisted of two modules each about the size of a medium inkjet printer stacked on top of each other, plus a CRT terminal/keyboard and a monster of a Xerox Diablo daisy-wheel printer. The printer was lightning-fast for its day, and printed pages that looked as though they had come off a typewriter — just what we wanted. Other print- ers available at the time were the dot matrix type, and some of those are still in use today. That Dynabyte computer was my introduction to a word processor called


WordStar, which I still use to this day, 35 years later. Old habits die hard sometimes. The computer had a bad habit of crashing for no apparent reason. There was no hard disk drive to crash, just two huge 8-inch floppy discs. I be- came convinced that the crashes were being caused by static electricity in the room where it was being used, and the chief culprit seemed to be the boss’ ex- ecutive secretary who would come into the room wearing a swishy nylon dress. Very bad for static electricity. Rather than telling her to take off the dress, I bought a couple of cans of foul-smelling anti-static spray and would spray her up and down before allowing her through the door. Boy, did that stuff stink! While this helped somewhat, the damn computer continued to crash with aggravating regularity, so we finally called in a computer techni- cian. He took one look at the computer setup and said, “I think I see your problem.” The two computer modules were sitting on top of a four-drawer metal filing cabinet which was acting like a giant storage capacitor. When it built up enough of a static charge, it would zap the computer. We moved the modules to a wooden desk, and the problem was solved, much to the delight of the nylon-swishing secretary. Moore’s Law today. I look at my wife’s new H-P notebook computer, at


my Nook e-reader, my underused tablet, my smart phone. I am writing this on a custom home-built desktop computer that has more power and storage than I will ever need, using the latest version of Microsoft Word, which now costs me $9.99 a month to license. I still prefer WordStar, especially for our many New Products, but to use that I have to switch over to a 12-year-old H- P notebook computer that runs Windows XP. It’s a real kludge, and it’s been rebuilt a couple of times, but it gets the job done. There’s still no end in sight for Moore’s Law, but we hear dire predictions every year, forcing the search for other, newer technologies. Is this the year it will all end? 50 is really push- ing old age in this industry, but then, I still use WordStar. r


PUBLISHER’S NOTE


By Jacob Fattal Publisher


is stupendous, and it has some of the best restaurants in the world. This year’s SEMICON is very special, with an expanded Intersolar right next door where visitors can have an extended look at tomorrow’s solar community. Solar has definitely been on the upswing as more manufacturers get in-


Taking it on the Road C


to the business to meet a demand that never seems to let up. While some com- panies are still struggling to match the lower-priced competition from China, which is largely subsidized by the Beijing regime, but increasing labor costs in China hold new promise for increased business in the Americas. Up next is our heaviest trade show schedule of the year. Next month, we


will be at Nepcon South China, while September kicks off with WESTEC in Los Angeles, followed closely by PCB West in Santa Clara. The week after than is SMTAI in Rosemont, while ATX Midwest will be running the same week in downtown Chicago. In October, there’s IMAPS in Orlando, followed by the Assembly Show in


Rosemont, and South-Tec in Charlotte. Autotestcon moved to a site right across the Potomac River from our Nation’s Capitol in November, followed by MDM Minneapolis, FABTEC in Chicago, and the same week, productronica in Munich. It’s a super-busy show schedule, and U.S. Tech will be at all of them,


bringing you, our readers, the latest news, new products, features and colum- nists. As the largest print publication in this industry, we will continue to grow and to bring you all the news not only in print but on our website and digital editions. Topical reporting, reviews and exceptional writing — all are our special gift to you, our loyal readers. See you on the road, wherever there’s a trade show. r


oming to San Francisco for SEMICON is always a great pleasure for me. It is one of the most delightful cities in the world; the streets are very clean, you can breathe the air without getting a coughing attack, scenery


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