Just six days ago, Intel Corporation and the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation jointly announced that the American engineer and business luminary, Gordon Earle Moore, passed away peacefully at the age of 94 (January 3, 1929 – March 24, 2023). Gordon Moore graduated from the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) with a Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1954. By 1957, Moore became one of the ‘traitorous eight‘ who defected from Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory (the first high-tech company in what became Silicon Valley) to found a new division of Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corporation known as Fairchild Semiconductor. In 1967, Moore left Fairchild to co-found a new brand company called Intel Corporation (a mashup of the words ‘integrated’ and ‘electronics’). Moore used Intel to pioneer the development of emerging technologies in areas of computer memory, integrated circuits and microprocessor designs. Intel’s relatively small electronic chips offered creative minds new types of digital tools that ultimately gave rise to the Information Age. While the very long list of Gordon Moore’s extraordinary engineering, scientific and philanthropic achievements is truly mind-boggling, his most enduring accomplishment happened while he was serving as the director of research and development for Fairchild. Electronics magazine editors asked Moore to predict what was going to happen in the semiconductor industry over the next ten years, and Moore responded simply by sharing his keen observation that the number of critical components in an integrated circuit had doubled approximately every two years－so Moore speculated that the exponential growth of electronic chips would continue for at least the next ten years (which it did for more than half a century). The 1965 article attracted the attention of an esteemed CalTech professor who continued to serve as Moore’s mentor, Carver Mead, who is the person who popularized the phrase ‘Moore’s Law‘ to describe the exponential increase in the computing power of electronic computer chips, with a comparable reduction in the size and costs of those chips. Like many other experts, however, Moore understood that it would be physically impossible to create electronic components smaller than the electrons used in computer chips, and the industry today is only a whisker away from that inescapable limitation. As Moore’s Law gradually slows to its inexorable end, however, it has already sparked advances in the field of quantum physics that have led to the development of dramatically new quantum computing processors and fabrication techniques that many experts expect will adhere to Neven’s Law－double-exponential growth of computing power. TeamPOAA hopes that DSD owners will reflect on the passing of Gordon Moore, the venerable inventor whose profoundly unique digital tools helped reshape human civilization. What effect, if any, will the passing of the progenitor of Moore’s Law have on the relationship between the development time and processing power of new types of computer chips? Will quantum computers double the widespread impacts of Moore’s Law? What effect will Artificial Intelligence (AI) have, if any, on developing smaller-than-electron chips, and what dangers lurk in leveraging AI in that way? Will humans ever be able to PASS THE CHIPS?

The CPB Snacks Division recently announced that it is requiring PF DSD owners to use very specific hardware devices in order to operate its version of the OmniTech Sales (OTS) software solution for consigned inventory management. The CPB mandate appears to be inconsistent with Korber’s claims that its OTS software is capable of operating on any modern device. To compound matters, CPB/PF refused to email DSD owners copies of the proposed equipment leases－but made them available through a third-party website with a CLICKWRAP agreement that apparently amends (or attempts to amend) the deliberate manner through which most existing consignment contracts were intended to be amended. Consequently, POAA urged DSD owners to consult with their trusted legal counsel BEFORE CLICKING through any agreement or to obtain copies of the proposed equipment lease agreements – which are now available through links below to agreements that were sent to POAA from a highly credible, but confidential, source. POAA also continues to encourage PF IDPs to consider the affordability of the Bring-Your-Own-Device (which CPB/PF recently rebranded as the Do-It-Yourself Bronze) option. During last week’s Zoom call about BYOD/DIY options, however, POAA members learned that CPB and/or its preferred corporate partners are the sole source for the only authorized DEX component – a GimmeKey Pro. POAA members also learned that CPB either directed or permitted its corporate partner(s) to lock the USB ports on its approved devices to guarantee sales of its exorbitant DEX component, and to prohibit the installation of readily available device drivers needed to use existing DEX components. POAA members also realized that some of the authorized ‘new‘ equipment is actually several generations old (again). Perhaps more importantly, CPB also either directed or permitted its corporate partners to withhold readily available print drivers (needed to protect our substantial investments) for existing and expensive portable printers (that are best-in-class and fully functional). POAA now encourages DSD owners to wait for CPB/PF to answer some basic and reasonable questions: What provision in the consignment contracts obligates PF IDPs to procure any equipment from CPB/PF’s designated sole source? Why does CPB/PF expect IDPs who opt for the BYOD/DIY plan to pay CPB/PF every week for equipment owned, configured and operated by those IDPs? Did you already agree to pay CPB/PF to support its technology infrastructure through a signed writing? If so, did you use a pen to sign a hardcopy after a thorough review of that agreement, or did you just click to sign it electronically? Do you believe that the CPB Snacks Mobile Transformation Initiative mysteriously transformed your expensive equipment into worthless bricks with older chips? Are you eager to start paying CPB/PF for equipment that you own and operate? Should IDPs just let the chips fall where they may, or demand more information? Do you believe that the chips are down, or are you content to wait until CPB/PF provides more meaningful answers and explanations before you commit to lease or invest in expensive new-ish equipment from CPB? Will we ever be able to PASS THE CHIPS?