Miniaturization Miniaturization Miniaturization (Br.Eng.: "Miniaturisation") is the trend to manufacture ever smaller mechanical, optical and electronic products and devices. Examples include miniaturization of mobile phones, computers and vehicle engine downsizing. In electronics, Moore's law, which was named after Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, predicted that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit for minimum component cost doubles every 18 months. This enables processors to be built in smaller sizes. The history of miniaturization is associated with the history of information technology based on the succession of switching devices, each smaller, faster, cheaper than its predecessor. During the period referred to as
Intel was revealed in testimony by then IAL Vice-President Steven McGeady at the Microsoft antitrust trial ("United States v. Microsoft Corp."). In early January 2018, it was reported that all Intel processors made since 1995 (besides Intel Itanium and pre-2013 Intel Atom) have been subject to two security flaws dubbed Meltdown and Spectre. The impact on performance resulting from software patches is "workload-dependent". Several procedures to help protect home computers and related devices from the Spectre (and Meltdown) security vulnerabilities have been published. Spectre patches have been reported to significantly slow down performance, especially on older computers; on the newer 8th