Nov. 7, 2002 – San Jose, CA – The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) will honor Gordon E. Moore, co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of Intel Corporation, with the SIA 25th Anniversary Lifetime Achievement Award, to be presented at the SIA’s Forecast and Award Dinner on Nov. 7.

In selecting Dr. Moore as the recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award, the SIA board of directors took note of his lifetime contributions to the information technology industry, the community, and the Semiconductor Industry Association as a board member and chairman.

“Gordon Moore is an innovator and industry legend, he is a superb leader, motivator, businessman, philanthropist, and educator,” stated SIA President George Scalise. “There is no one in the Valley who has not been impacted by his work, his entrepreneurial spirit, and his uncanny ability to foresee the pace of innovation in the chip industry.”

With the articulation of Moore’s Law in 1965, which observed that the number of transistors on a chip, and its raw computing power, was doubling roughly every 18 months, and that computing capability would not require a commensurate increase in cost, Moore captured the essence of semiconductor technology: relentless, geometric growth in chip power, accompanied by a proportionate decrease in cost.

Moore has authored the foreword to a new book on the semiconductor industry, released by the SIA as part of its 25th anniversary celebration. Thinking back to the late 1950s, when Silicon Valley was still a dozen years from a name, Moore writes, “What if we had been told then that in our lifetimes that all the computer power then in the world would be available on a single descendent of those little transistors we were designing — and that someday that device would be built by the hundreds of millions each year? Would we have believed it?”

In July of 2002, Moore was selected by President George Bush to receive the National Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, at a White House ceremony, for his career contributions to the development of the microprocessor and the computing industries. “Gordon Moore has been instrumental in the development of the microchip, which has profoundly changed the way we live, work, play and communicate,” stated George Scalise, in extending the SIA’s congratulations to Dr. Moore.

While perhaps best known as an entrepreneur and innovator, with lasting contributions to the semiconductor industry and the technology revolution, Gordon Moore will be remembered as a champion of both technology and civilization. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation funds initiatives in four major areas: higher education, scientific research, the environment, and select San Francisco Bay Area projects. “Those of us who have been very fortunate in this system have some obligation to give and it’s nice to see that there are opportunities where present philanthropy looks like it really makes a significant difference with some of the things going on in the world,” Dr. Moore stated in an interview after the White House award ceremony.

In choosing the SIA’s 25th anniversary to honor Dr. Moore with the industry’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the SIA board of directors joins in thanking him for his lifelong record of innovation, service and leadership in an industry he himself defined as “an economic and cultural phenomenon, a crucial force at the heart of the modern world.” The board recognizes Gordon Moore as a superb role model for future generations of business leaders, exemplifying business skill, technical knowledge, and a willingness to participate and share within the industry, the community, the nation and the world, while maintaining the highest level of ethics.

A native of California, Gordon Moore received a BS in chemistry from the University of California-Berkeley and a PhD in chemistry and physics from the California Institute of Technology. He was a founder of Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957 as part of a group of leaders known as the Fairchild Eight, and co-founded Intel, with Bob Noyce, in 1968. Moore became chief executive officer of Intel in 1975, was elected chairman and CEO in 1979, served as CEO until 1987, and was named Chairman Emeritus in 1997.