May 12, 2015, 9:13 AM EDT E-mail Tweet Facebook Google Plus Linkedin Share icons

It isnt every day that Silicon Valley celebrates its rich history with someone who created it. Yet at age 86, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore is very much around to remind people of the scientific and commercial breakthrough he made 50 years ago when he explained to the technical community how semiconductors would develop.

Intel INTC , together with the foundation Moore and his wife Betty started, threw a bash Monday night at San Franciscos Exploratorium museum to honor the 50th anniversary of Moores Law. Pundit Thomas Friedman interviewed Moore, still a spry and powerful speaker years into his retirement.

Moores Law began as a technical article in an electronics-industry trade publication. Moore, while still at Fairchild Semiconductor, posited that the number of transistors on a semiconductor would continue to double every year, a figure he revised to every two years. Moore noted that his prediction, which he had no idea would be relatively precise, was an economic observation as much as a scientific one. It took considerable engineering effort, by Intel and others, to make his law come true.

Moore also said he tried to get out of the prediction business as quickly as he got into it. Once youve made a successful prediction you avoid making another one, he said.

Moores Law became a guiding light for an industry. His original article also envisioned a future for cheaper, more powerful semiconductors. He envisioned PCs, cell phones, self-driving cars, and electronic wristwatchesall powered by ever-improving chips.

Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in conversation with columnist Thomas Friedman in San Francisco on May 11, 2015.

Brian Krzanich, the current CEO of Intel, opened the evening by putting the achievement of Moores Law into perspective. Intels chips have improved performance a factor of 3,500 since they were introduced, he said, reflecting a 90,000-times improvement in energy efficiency and at one-60,000th of the cost. Were a 1971 Volkswagen Beetle to undergo the same transformation, he said, it would travel at 300,000 miles per hour, achieve 2 million miles per gallon, and cost four cents.

The evening offered hundreds of Moores admirers the opportunity to honor his achievements. He recounted that he became interested in science because a neighbor received a gift of a chemistry set that included explosives.

Moore himself didnt coin the expression Moores Law, and he avoided it for decades. For the first 20 years I couldnt utter the words Moores Law, he said. It was embarrassing. Over time he relented and embraced his accomplishment. Asked by Friedman if he knew which Google search would elicit more responses, Moores Law or Murphys Law, Moore responded that Moores Law would win hands down.

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Intel celebrates Moore's Law... with Gordon Moore - Fortune