Transistor counts on leading chips have grown by tens of doublings since the early 1970s, but the record fits a slower doubling period than the one usually quoted — and any fixed-period rule extrapolated across five decades runs far ahead of the chips actually built.

1k10k100k1M10M100M1B10B100B1T10T100T19711996202118-month-doubling predictionactual transistor count
Transistors per microprocessorCount a fixed doubling period would predict
2021
Doublings since 197124.59
Years per doubling the record actually implies2.03 yr
How many times the fixed-period rule overstates the real count429.2

Interactive artifact by Delineo