Computers today are dominated by two major micro processing companies named Intel & AMD, the latest offering of microprocessor available from Intel for example contains billions of transistors and as a comparison the Intel 4004 chip from 1971 contained 2,300 transistors, the most common Pentium chip from Intel in 1993 contained 3,100,000 transistors. Over the years the technology behind transistors has changed so that they could be made smaller and more could be fitted into microprocessors giving faster processors. The technology continues to make advances in miniaturization in manufacturing transistors and microprocessors.
In 1965 Gordon E. Moore, the co-founder of Intel wrote a paper describing how the number of transistors in integrated circuits had doubled every year since the invention of the integrated circuit until 1965 and he predicted that the trend would continue for at least ten years. Forty Five years on and the prediction is still somewhat correct and is now commonly known as Moore's Law. In 2005 in an interview with Moore stated that the continuation of the trend cannot continue as transistors would eventually reach the limits of miniaturization at atomic levels. However experts still insist that Moore's Law will continue for at least another decade or two.
Computers need millions or even billions of transistors to complete tasks. Thanks to the reliability and incredibly small size of individual transistors, which are much smaller than the diameter of a single human hair, engineers can pack an unfathomable number of transistors into a wide array of computer and computer-related products. Transistors are devices that control the movement of electrons, and consequently, electricity. They work something like a water faucet, not only do they start and stop the flow of a current, but they also control the amount of the current. With electricity, transistors can both switch or amplify electronic signals, letting you control current moving through a circuit board with precision.
