Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology

318 Moore, Gordon E.only one gun, while a color monitor, like a color TV, hasseparate guns for red, blue, and green. The electrons fromthe guns pass through a lattice called a shadow mask,which keeps the beams properly separated and aligned.Each pixel location on the inner surface of the CRT iscoated with phosphors, one that responds to each of thethree colors.The intensity of the beam hitting each color determinesthe brightness of the color, and the mixture of the red, blue,and green color levels determines the final color of thepixel. (Today’s graphics systems can generate more than16.7 million different colors, although the human eye cannotmake such fine distinctions.)The beam sweeps along a row of pixels and then turnsoff momentarily as it is refocused and set to the nextrow. The process of scanning the whole screen in thisway is repeated 60 times a second, too fast to be noticedby the human eye. Less expensive monitors were sometimesdesigned to skip over alternate lines on each passso that each line is refreshed only 30 times a second. Thisinterlaced display can have noticeable flicker, and fallingprices have resulted in virtually all current monitorsbeing noninterlaced.Another factor influencing the quality of a CRT monitoris the size of the screen area devoted to each pixel. Thespacing in the shadow mask that defines the pixel areas iscalled the dot pitch. A smaller dot pitch allows for a sharperimage.During the 1980s, emerging video standards offeredincreasing screen resolution and number of colors, startingwith the first IBM PC color displays at 320 × 200 pixels, 4colors up to video graphics array (VGA) displays at 1024 ×768 pixels and at least 256 colors. The latter is consideredthe minimum standard today, with some displays going ashigh as 1600 × 1200 with millions of colors.Meanwhile, the CRT monitor became a commodity itemwith steadily falling prices. A 19-inch color monitor nowcosts only a few hundred dollars. Ergonomically, it is importantfor the combination of display size and resolution to beset to avoid eyestrain. There has been some concern aboutusers receiving potentially damaging nonionizing radiationfrom CRT displays, but studies have generally been unableto confirm such effects. Modern monitors are generallydesigned to minimize this radiation.CRT displays are too bulky and power-hungry for laptopor handheld devices, which generally use liquid crystaldisplays (LCDs). In recent years large LCD displays suitablefor desktop systems have also declined in price, and arerapidly becoming the display of choice even for regular PCs(see flat-panel display).Further ReadingCarmack, Carmen, and Jeff Tyson. “How Computer MonitorsWork.” Available online. URL: http://www.howstuffworks.com/monitor.htm. Accessed August 15, 2007.Goldwasser, Samuel M. “Notes on the Troubleshooting and Repairof Computer and Video Monitors.” Available online. URL:http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/monfaq.htm. Accessed August15, 2007.Moore, Gordon E.(1929– )AmericanEntrepreneurThe microprocessor chip is the heart of the modern computer,and Gordon Moore deserves much of the credit forputting it there. His insight into the computer chip’s potentialand his business acumen and leadership would lead to theearly success and market dominance of Intel Corporation.Moore was born on January 3, 1929, in the small coastaltown of Pescadero, California, south of San Francisco. Hisfather was the local sheriff and his mother ran the generalstore. Young Moore was a good science student, and heattended the University of California, Berkeley, receivinga B.S. in chemistry in 1950. He then went to the CaliforniaInstitute of Technology (Caltech), earning a dual Ph.D. inchemistry and physics in 1954. Moore thus had a soundbackground in materials science that would help preparehim to evaluate the emerging research in transistors andsemiconductor devices that would begin to transform electronicsin the later 1950s.After spending two years doing military research atJohns Hopkins University, Moore returned to the WestCoast to work for Shockley Semiconductor Labs in PaloAlto. However, Shockley, who would later share in a NobelPrize for the invention of the transistor, alienated many ofhis top staff, including Moore, and they decided to starttheir own company, Fairchild Semiconductor, in 1958.Moore became manager of Fairchild’s engineeringdepartment and, the following year, director of research.He worked closely with Robert Noyce, who was developinga revolutionary process for placing the equivalent of manytransistors and other components onto a small chip.Moore and Noyce saw the potential of this integratedcircuittechnology for making electronic devices includingclocks, calculators, and especially computers vastly smalleryet more powerful. In 1965 he formulated what becamewidely known in the industry as Moore’s law. This predictionsuggested that the number of transistors that could beput in a single chip would double about every year (laterit would be changed to 18 months or two years). Remarkably,Moore’s law would still hold true into the 21st century,although as transistors get ever closer together, the laws ofphysics begin to impose limits on current technology.Moore, Noyce, and Andrew Grove found that they couldnot get along well with the upper management in Fairchild’sparent company, and decided to start their own company,Intel Corporation, in 1968, using $245,000 plus $2.5million from venture capitalist Arthur Rock (see GroveAndrew and Intel Corporation). They made the developmentand application of microchip technology the centerpieceof their business plan. Their first products wereRAM (random access memory) chips (see chip).Seeking business, Intel received a proposal from Busicom,a Japanese firm, for 12 custom chips for a new calculator.Moore and Grove were not sure they were ready toundertake such a large project, but then Ted Hoff, one oftheir first employees, suggested that they could build a chip