KEY POINTS:
It's only day one of the Intel Developer's Forum, but a highlight for me for the entire show will no doubt remain the "fireside chat" NPR technology journalist Dr. Moira Gunn conducted with Intel co-founder Gordon Moore.
Few have contributed more to the development of the computer
industry than Moore, who is famous for Moore's Law, which suggests that the number of transistors that can cost-effectively be placed on an integrated circuit will double roughly every two years.
Also on Wikipedia is the original 1965 article that formulated the ideas that would later begin to be referred to as Moore's Law. The law has stood the test of time for decades, though Moore suggested today it would be rendered obsolete in the next 15 years or so.
"Any physical quality that's growing exponentially produces a disaster, it comes to an end," said Moore, who had to buy the name Intel from a motel chain when the company was founded in 1968.
It was a nostalgic 45 minutes for Moore as the 78 year-old billionaire who helped make the rise of the PC industry possible, chartered the highs and lows of Intel and the period before the rise of the semiconductor when he worked at Fairchild Semiconductor.
Moore is a good age now, but he comes across as lucid, visionary and humble. For a long time he was uncomfortable having his name attached to the law that has governed the advance of computer chip technology.
"For decades, I couldn't even say the words, but I've finally gotten used to it," he said.
Now he's a major philanthropist who famously gave $600 million ($NZ828m) to the Caltech educational facility he loves.
Throughout his career, Moore said he liked to go deep-sea fishing away from all distractions to give himself space to think. Moore still has an office at Intel, the biggest cubicle in the company apparently and is still tapped into the R&D efforts going on at Intel, where he still commands huge respect.
He told the IDF audience his dream would be to come back in 100 years to see where technology has ended up.
"I'd like to be around long enough to see some of the things that are being developed now, come to fruition."
Afterwards, Moore dropped by the pressroom to chat with journalists and sign autographs. He seemed a little bemused by the ring of people three or four deep that gathered around him. Then with a good-natured wave he wandered out a man seemingly completely at ease with himself and his place in history in the twilight of his life.
