British engineer gets $10,000 magazine reward from Intel

By Steve Malone

Posted on 25 Apr 2005 at 10:31

Intel has given a British engineer $10,000 for a copy of a magazine that has been lurking under his floorboards for thirty years. David Clark, from Surrey became the first person to contact Intel to say he had a near mint edition of the magazine that first expounded Moore's Law.

Intel had placed an advert on eBay asking the world if anyone had a copy of the 1965 issue of Electronics Magazine in which the company's founder Gordon Moore first set out in print the idea of 'Moore's Law'. This article which has since gone down in electronics folklore, set out the proposition that the number of transistors on a processor would double every two years.

In its preparations to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the publication, Intel discovered that it did not actually own a copy of the famed publication. Moore himself admitted that he had lost his own copy. Hence, the company's offer of $10,000 to anyone who might still have a copy of the magazine stashed away.

Intel says ' We are delighted to have a copy of the article back in the home of Intel in Santa Clara and are extremely grateful to Mr Clark for making this possible'.

David Clark who admits to being 'a bit of a hoarder' got hold of his copy of the magazine after Philips began clearing out its library in the 1970s. When he heard news of the bounty, he took the day off and began to pull back the furniture. He says he now intends to use the reward to pay for his daughter's wedding.

The bounty set on the copy of Electronics, has caused something of a stir, particularly in the United States. There, librarians have been told to keep their copies under lock and key to prevent theft. A bound copy of the magazine had already been stolen University of Illinois' engineering library when news of the reward went around the world. Presumably, now that Intel has its own copy, the few remaining copies of the magazine can be safely be returned to the shelves.

A copy of the original article is available in PDF format on the Intel ftp site.