What is a ‘dense integrated circuit’ or ‘integrated function’ and how does it relates to Area in Moore’s law?
A &quot;dense integrated circuit&quot; simply means that the transistors are as small as possible and as close together as possible.
If you designed an integrated circuit where the transistors take more space than strictly needed the it is not &quot;dense&quot; meaning, it could have been made smaller.
What Moore writes relates to designs that are as small as possible. His statements simply do not apply to designs that are not &quot;dense&quot; as such designs do not have maximum functionality for a given chip area.
An &quot;integrated function&quot; is a function implemented on a chip. For example a 32 bit multiplier is a function and needs a certain amount of logic gates meaning it needs a certain size on a chip. By comparing technologies on the function the comparison is fair and not comparing apples against pears.
Comparing more complex designs like a microcontroller quickly becomes unfair as the functionality of different products (realized in different IC manufacturing processes) is seldom identical.