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.
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
- Transistors per microprocessor, Our World in Data retrieved 2026-07-27 · CC BY 4.0
Interactive artifact by Delineo