Three very large, independent phenomena, i.e. the enormous growth of the semiconductor industry, the commoditization of the computer industry and the emergence of a huge software industry have created the economic framework that has held Moore's Law in place for so long. Moore's Law has become an economic law expressing the rate at which each product generation lasts long enough to be (marginally) profitable for the systems vendors, and yet provides new product introductions to customers at a pace at which they will consider them seriously.