Engineers at Intel Corporation publicly introduced the first microprocessor, the Intel 4004, combining the basic logic circuits of a computer on a small square of silicon called a “chip.”
The microelectronics industry began shortly after World War II with the invention of the transistor. During the war, it was discovered while radar was being developed that certain crystalline substances, such as germanium and silicon, possessed unique electrical properties that made them excellent signal detectors. This class of materials became known as semiconductors, because they were neither conductors nor insulators. Immediately after the war, Bell Telephone Laboratories
Shockley left Bell Laboratories and returned to Palo Alto, California, where he formed his own company, Shockley Semiconductor Laboratories, as a subsidiary of Beckman Instruments. Palo Alto is the home of Stanford University, which, in 1954, set aside 655 acres of its land as a high-technology industrial park, known as Stanford Research Park. One of the first small companies to lease a site there was Hewlett-Packard. Many others followed, and the surrounding area of Santa Clara County gave rise in the 1960’s and 1970’s to a booming community of electronics firms known as “Silicon Valley.”
On the strength of his prestige, Shockley recruited eight young scientists from the eastern United States to work for him. One was Robert Norton Noyce, an Iowa-bred physicist with a doctorate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After working at Philco’s transistor division, Noyce came to Shockley’s company in 1956. The “Shockley Eight,” as they became known in the industry, soon found themselves at odds with their boss over issues of research and development. Seven of the dissenting scientists negotiated with industrialist Sherman Fairchild,
At the same time, an established Dallas company, Texas Instruments,
Research efforts at Fairchild Semiconductor
Marcian Edward Hoff, Jr., holds one of the computer chips he invented while with Intel in 1971.
A significant development in semiconductor technology was the introduction of photolithography in the mid- and late 1950’s. This process enabled manufacturers to etch the semiconductor by projecting a photo reduction of an actual circuit diagram. The development of the integrated circuit, the planar manufacturing process, and photolithography were all crucial steps in the evolution of microelectronics. They reduced the need for labor-intensive attachment of individual components to a circuit board, greatly facilitating mass production.
In the early 1960’s, Fairchild Semiconductor and Texas Instruments led the semiconductor industry, in great measure because of contracts for missile guidance system components. By the time International Business Machines (IBM)
By 1968, Fairchild Semiconductor had grown to a point where many of its key Silicon Valley managers had major philosophical differences with the East Coast management of their parent company. This led to a major exodus of top-level management and engineers. Many started their own companies. Noyce, Gordon E. Moore, and Andrew Grove
In 1969, Marcian Edward Hoff, Jr., an Intel research and development engineer, met with engineers from Busicom, a Japanese firm. Busicom wanted Intel to design a set of integrated circuits for their desktop calculators, but Hoff told them their specifications were too complex. Nevertheless, Hoff began to think about the possibility of incorporating all the logic circuits of a computer central processing unit (CPU) into one chip. He began to design a chip called a microprocessor, which, when combined with a chip to hold the program and one to hold the data, would become a small general-purpose computer. Noyce encouraged Hoff and his associates to continue his work on the microprocessor, and Busicom contracted with Intel to produce the chip. Frederico Faggin
Hoff later admitted, “If we had not made the 4004 in 1971, someone else would have invented the microprocessor in a year or two.” Indeed, Texas Instruments also claims ownership of the inventions of the microprocessor and the microcomputer. Furthermore, according to a 1990 article in Computerworld, a California engineer named Gilbert Hyatt
The evolution of integrated circuits produced a corresponding evolution of computer technology. Profits from the sales of integrated circuit memory chips to computer companies allowed the semiconductor makers to research and develop new integrated circuits with more power. In 1964, Moore, the director of research at Fairchild Semiconductors and one of the original Shockley Eight, noted that the number of elements in the most advanced integrated circuits had doubled each year since 1959 and made a prediction that the trend, which became known as Moore’s law, would continue. Coupled with Moore’s law is the “learning curve,” which describes the 20 to 30 percent decline in an integrated circuit’s price for each doubling of its market lifetime as production efficiency improves.
The integrated circuit industry became a fiercely competitive arena where companies such as Texas Instruments, Intel, Motorola, and Fairchild Semiconductors contended. Many other new companies were created in the process. After leaving Fairchild, Shockley’s original team eventually produced more than thirty corporate descendants in Silicon Valley.
By 1975, microcomputer kits were sold to hobbyists for less than a thousand dollars. More powerful computers made by Apple, Commodore, and Radio Shack soon appeared in stores for the same price.
The learning curve of microprocessor technology made available for a few dollars computers the size of a fingernail that would have filled a room and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a decade before. Computers had existed previously behind closed doors as the mysterious domain of a few scientists and technicians, but the microprocessor allowed almost anyone to own a computer, often without even being aware of it. The microprocessor found its way into automobiles, microwave ovens, wristwatches, telephones, and an abundance of other ordinary items encountered in everyday life.
On the cutting edge of technology, ever more powerful computers were developed, often using a parallel architecture of several CPUs. The declining cost of microelectronic technology made it possible for more and more companies to invest in and make use of a global network of communications satellites.
After several decades, Moore’s law was still an accurate measure of integrated circuit development. However, Noyce and others admitted that chip densities have an upper limit imposed by the laws of physics. More than four decades later, integrated circuits contained hundreds of millions of transistors. The future of this technology is difficult to predict, but it is known with certainty that computer technology will continue to develop rapidly.
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Berlin, Leslie. The Man Behind the Microchip: Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. This well-researched biography includes interviews with Andy Grove, Steve Jobs, and Gordon Moore, among others. -
Hanson, Dirk. The New Alchemists: Silicon Valley and the Microelectronics Revolution. Boston: Little, Brown, 1982. Chronicles the evolution of semiconductor technology from the days of Thomas Alva Edison. The history, methods, and culture of the semiconductor industry are richly described, along with the industry’s impact on communications, the military, consumer products, and larger social issues such as freedom and unemployment. -
Harrington, Maura J. “Micro Chip Patent Rewrites History.” Computerworld 24 (September 3, 1990): 4. This short article contains the startling report that twenty years after filing with the U.S. Patent Office, Gilbert Hyatt was granted a patent for the first microcomputer chip. -
Jackson, Tim. Inside Intel: The Story of Andrew Grove and the Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Chip Company. 2d ed. New York: Plume Books, 1998. History of the genesis and rise of Intel, the world’s largest semiconductor company. -
Large, Peter. The Micro Revolution Revisited. London: Frances Pinter, 1984. An English view of the impact of microprocessors on human society. Contains a description of how chips are made and their history. -
Malone, Michael S. The Microprocessor: A Biography. Santa Clara, Calif.: Telos, 1995. Presents a general history of the microprocessor, how it works, and the people involved with its development. -
Noyce, Robert N. “Microelectronics.” Scientific American 237 (September, 1977): 63-69. Cites Moore’s law as the basis for predicting the rapid growth and proliferation of computing power. The revolutionary impact on society that Noyce predicted continues to unfold. -
Osborne, Adam. An Introduction to Microcomputers. 3d ed. Berkeley, Calif.: Osborne/McGraw-Hill, 1982. For those who desire to learn about how microprocessors work, Osborne provides a good introduction. The book is filled with illustrations and diagrams that help explain the components and functions of microprocessors and their related devices to the nontechnical reader. -
_______. Running Wild: The Next Industrial Revolution. Berkeley, Calif.: Osborne/McGraw-Hill, 1979. Industry pioneer Osborne’s account of the microprocessor’s impact on technology, society, and the future. Unfortunately, the unusual insight evident in this book was not enough to ensure the success of the company Osborne founded in 1980 to manufacture the Osborne 1 portable computer. After two years of huge initial sales, production and cash flow problems caused Osborne Computer to go bankrupt. -
Reid, T. R. The Chip: How Two Americans Invented the Microchip and Launched a Revolution. Rev. ed. New York: Random House, 2001. Biography of inventors Jack Kirby and Robert Noyce. Provides a useful introduction to the science of microchips. -
Rogers, Everett M., and Judith K. Larsen. Silicon Valley Fever: The Growth of High-Technology Culture. New York: Basic Books, 1984. Thorough chronicle of Silicon Valley, the hub of the U.S. semiconductor industry, with an emphasis on the companies that form its history, economics, and culture. Chapters 2 and 6 are particularly informative. The authors spent two years interviewing industry leaders. Contains many personal accounts that offer an intimate look at key events.
Texas Instruments Introduces the Pocket Calculator
Jobs and Wozniak Found Apple Computer
Apple II Becomes the First Successful Preassembled Personal Computer
IBM Introduces Its Personal Computer
Introduction of Optical Discs for Data Storage
Introduction of the Apple Macintosh
IBM and Apple Agree to Make Compatible Computers
Intel Introduces the Pentium Processor