Noyce biography

Moore, "Robert N. An obituary is in the New York Times 4 June Robert Norton Noyce coinvented the integrated circuit , an electronic component which is considered to be among the twentieth century's most significant technological developments. The laptop computer, the ignition control in a modern automobile, the "brain" of a VCR that allows for its programming, and thousands of other computing devices all depend for their operation on the integrated circuit that Robert Noyce coinvented.

He was not only a brilliant inventor, credited with more than a dozen patents for semiconductor devices and processes, but a forceful businessman who founded the Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation and the Intel Corporation and who, at the time of his death, was president and CEO of Sematech. Robert Norton Noyce was born December 12, , in Burlington, Iowa, the third of four boys in the family.

Growing up in a two-story church-owned house in Grinnell, a small town in central Iowa, Noyce was gifted in many areas, excelling in sports, music, and acting as well as academic work. He exhibited a talent for math and science while in high school and took the Grinnell college freshman physics course in his senior year. Noyce went on to receive his baccalaureate degree in physics from Grinnell, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in It was at Grinnell that he was introduced to the transistor an electronic device that allows a small current to control a larger one in another location by his mentor Grant Gale, head of Grinnell's physics department.

Noyce was excited by the invention, seeing it as freeing electronics from the constraints of the bulky and inefficient vacuum tube. After he received his Ph. After three years, Noyce became convinced Philco did not have as much interest in transistors as he did. By chance in he was asked by William Shockley, Nobel laureate and coinventor of the transistor, to come work for him in California.

Excited by the opportunity to develop state-of the-art transistor technology, Noyce moved to Palo Alto , which is located in an area that came to be known as Silicon Valley named for the silicon compounds used in the manufacture of computer chips. But Noyce was no happier with Shockley than he had been with Philco; both Shockley's management style and the direction of his work—which ignored transistors—were disappointing.

In Noyce left with seven other Shockley engineers to form a new company, financed by Fairchild Camera and Instrument, to be called Fairchild Semiconductor. At age twenty-nine, Noyce was chosen as the new corporation's leader. The first important development during the early years at Fairchild was the invention, by Jean Hoerni an ex-Shockley scientist , of a process to protect the elements on a transistor from contaminants during manufacturing.

This was called the planar process, and involved laying down a layer of silicon oxide over the transistor's elements. In , after prodding from one of his patent attorneys to find more applications for the planar process, Noyce took the next step of putting several electronic components, such as resistors and transistors, on the same chip and layering them over with silicon oxide.

Combining components in this fashion eliminated the need to wire individual transistors to each other and made possible tremendous reductions in the size of circuit components with a corresponding increase in the speed of their operation. The integrated circuit, or microchip as it became commonly known, had been born. More than one person, however, was working toward this invention at the same time.

Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments had devised an integrated circuit the year before, but it had no commercial application. Nevertheless, both Kilby and Noyce are considered coinventors of the integrated circuit. In Noyce applied for a semiconductor integrated circuit patent using his process, which was awarded in Both technological advances and competition in the new microchip industry increased rapidly.

The number of transistors that could be put on a microchip grew from ten in to one thousand in to thirty-two thousand in By up to 3. The number of manufacturers eventually grew from two Fairchild and Shockley to dozens. During the s Noyce's company was the leading producer of microchips, and by he was a millionaire. However, Noyce still felt constricted at Fairchild; he wanted more control and so—along with Gordon Moore also a former Shockley employee —he formed Intel in Santa Clara , California.

Intel went to work making semiconductor memory, or data storage. Subsequently, Ted Hoff, an Intel scientist, invented the microprocessor and propelled Intel into the forefront of the industry.

Noyce biography

By Intel could claim to have pioneered three-quarters of the previous decade's advances in microtechnology. Noyce's management style could be called "roll up your sleeves. Becoming chairman of the board of Intel in , he left the work of daily operations behind him, founding and later becoming chairman of the Semiconductor Industry Association.

In Noyce was honored with the National Medal of Science and in , the same year that Intel's sales reached one billion dollars, he was made a member of the National Inventor's Hall of Fame. He was dubbed the Mayor of Silicon Valley during the s, not only for his scientific contributions but also for his role as a spokesperson for the industry. Noyce spent much of his later career working to improve the international competitiveness of American industry.

Early on he recognized the strengths of foreign competitors in the electronics market and the corresponding weaknesses of domestic companies. In Noyce took charge of Sematech, a consortium of semiconductor manufacturers working together and with the United States government to increase U. Noyce was married twice. His first marriage to Elizabeth Bottomley ended in divorce which he attributed to his intense involvement in his work ; the couple had four children together.

In he married Ann Bowers, who was then Intel's personnel director. Noyce enjoyed reading Hemingway, flying his own airplane, hang gliding, and scuba diving. He believed that microelectronics would continue to advance in complexity and sophistication well beyond its current state, leading to the question of what use society would make of the technology.

Noyce died on June 3, , of a sudden heart attack. At Intel he oversaw Ted Hoff's invention of the microprocessor -- that was his second revolution. At both companies, Noyce introduced a very casual working atmosphere, the kind of atmosphere that has become a cultural stereotype of how California companies work. But along with that open atmosphere came responsibility.

Noyce learned from Shockley's mistakes and he gave his young, bright employees phenomenal room to accomplish what they wished, in many ways defining the Silicon Valley working style was his third revolution. Noyce was working to prevent the acquisition of a Silicon Valley materials supplier by a Japanese concern when he died unexpectedly of a heart attack in July at his home in Austin, Texas.

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Richmond A. Paul Alivisatos R. Lawrence Edwards. Draper Othmar H. Ammann Hugh L. Dryden Clarence L. Johnson Warren K. Lewis Claude E. Shannon Edwin H. Noyce and Kilby came up with the same solution at virtually the same time. For that reason they share credit for the invention. In , Moore and Noyce left Fairchild Semiconductor with the dream of creating a company that specialized in developing integrated circuits for the computer industry.

They called their venture Integrated Electronics, which is now more commonly known as Intel. At Intel, engineers developed a microchip that could store computer language ones and zeroes and introduced its first random access computer RAM memory chip in After that advancement, the first microprocessor quickly followed. Noyce also made his mark as an innovative manager with an easygoing style that encouraged creative solutions to problems.

Noyce was richly rewarded for his accomplishments. Noyce was highly regarded by his peers who respected his technical brilliance and admired his gracious personality. Robert Noyce Oral History. Explore Browse by Subject. Oral Histories.