Gossip

No, there won't be any PCs - Gordon Moore

It's true; Gordon Moore did predict the personal computer, way back in 1965 - a time when a lot of people doubted that even mainframe computers had any real value. But did he take that prediction seriously, in 1965?

The http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/2134 full text of the article shows that in 1965, eager to impress the world with the value of the integrated circuit, Moore did indeed predict PCs: "Integrated circuits will lead to such wonders as home computers, or at least terminals connected to a central computer," he foresaw.

This morning in London, we had a chance to hear Moore, speaking from Hawaii late at night. Did he really predict PCs came the question.

"I recently re-read my 1965 article," replied Moore, "and was frankly surprised to see that I predicted home computers as one use of this electronics. So in that respect I did anticipate it, and I had completely forgotten that prediction when it came along."

Indeed, he didn't think it was that important, he confessed. "When I was CEO at Intel, one of our engineers suggested that our microprocessors could be used as a home computer."

The suggestion didn't get a warm welcome: "I said gee, that's fine, but what would you use it for? And he thought it might be useful for calculating components in recipes for a housewife preparing a meal, so I said I didn't think that was a very powerful application."