According to Wikipedia, "Moore's law is the observation that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years." Gordon Moore made that observation in 1970, and as you can see from the figure below, it has been remarkably accurate over the many decades since.
This image is a detailed graph titled "Microprocessor Transistor Counts 1971–2011 & Moore's Law." It visually depicts the exponential increase in the number of transistors used in microprocessors over a 40-year period, aligning with Moore’s Law, which predicts that the number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles approximately every two years. The x-axis represents the year of introduction for various microprocessors, ranging from 1971 to 2011, while the y-axis uses a logarithmic scale to show transistor counts, starting at 2,300 and reaching up to 2.6 billion.
Key data points include the Intel 4004 in 1971 with 2,300 transistors, marking the beginning of the timeline; the Intel 8086 in the late 1970s with 29,000 transistors, showing early growth; the Intel Pentium in the mid-1990s with 3.1 million transistors, reflecting a significant leap in complexity; and the Intel Core i7 around 2008 with 781 million transistors, demonstrating the rapid advancement in modern processors. A smooth curve overlays the data points, illustrating the consistent doubling trend predicted by Moore’s Law and confirming its relevance over time.
But you cannot just keep making things smaller and smaller to make them faster and faster. At some point, you hit the limit of approaching zero and the fact that it becomes incredibly expensive to produce incredibly small feature sizes. As shown in the figure below, a leading trade magazine, IEEE Spectrum, has reported that transistors could stop shrinking in 2021.
This will mean that faster computers will not be possible based on shrinking geometries. One potential approach, instead of increasing the density of transistors is the approach of making transistors faster by using carbon nanotubes. Electrons move much faster in carbon nanotubes than conventional semiconductor materials. A picture of a research carbon nanotube bridge is shown below.
