klshafer@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Ken Shafer) (06/14/90)
ROBERT NOYCE, INVENTOR OF THE MICROCHIP, DIES AT 62
(Material quoted for FAIR USE PUBLIC POLICY AND EDUCATIONAL
PURPOSES. Please refer to the New York Times , Computerworld,
and "The Chip War" (Charles Scribner's Sons, publishers) for full text.)
(followups will be directed to comp.sys.intel)
The New York Times, June 4, 1990, reports (in part):
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"Robert N. Noyce, an inventor of the computer chip that revolutionized the
electronics industry and gave rise to the era of high technology, died
yesterday at Seton Medical Center in Austin, Tex., after suffering a
heart attack at his home. He was 62 years old."...
"Dr. Noyce, who once described his career as the result of a succession
of dissatisfactions, developed a system of interconnecting transistors
on a single silicon microchip, known as integrated circuitry. He was
awarded a patent in 1959..."
"In 1968, Dr. Noyce and an associate founded the Intel Corporation,
which developed the microprocessor that is the heart of most personal
computers..."
" 'He was considered the mayor of Silicon Valley,' said Jim Jarret,
a spokesman for Intel. A founder of the Semiconductor Industry Association
in 1975, Dr. Noyce was frequently in Washington to lobby on behalf of
semiconductor manufacturers."
"At the time of his death, Dr. Noyce was the president and chief executive
of Sematech, Inc., a research consortium in Austin that was organized by
14 corporations in an attempt to help the American computer industry
catch up with the Japanese in semiconductor manufacturing technology."
"Industry executives said finding a successor for him at Sematech would
be difficult." ...
"The chairman of Intel, Gordon E. Moore, said in a statement: 'The
electronics industry lost a legendary figure today with Bob Noyce's
sudden death. Bob's achievements put him in a class by himself:
inventor of the integrated circuit, founder of two major American
companies, and the first chief executive of Sematech.' " ...
"A spokesman for Sematech, Joe Stroop, said yesterday, 'Dr. Noyce
was a strong advocate of restoring competitiveness to the U.S. industrial
and education systems.' In April, Dr. Noyce asked Sematech's board
to begin searching for someone who would eventually replace him,
Mr. Stroup said. "
"In an opinion piece published last year in the Sunday Business section
of The New York Times, Dr. Noyce said consortiums like Sematech, which
are far more common in Japan, could be successful in the United States
if they were led by industry, addressed areas of national concern,
shared financial risk with governments and focused on projects that
cooperative efforts could complete more efficiently than individual
companies."
" 'There is only one reason to support consortiums in this country,'
Dr. Noyce wrote, 'and that is to benefit the American people.' "
"An Iowa native who was the son of a Congregational minister, Dr. Noyce
became fascinated by computers while at Grinnell College in Grinnell,
Iowa, where he earned a bachelor's degree." ...
"In 1953, he received a doctorate in physics from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology."
"Later that year he took his first job as a research engineer at the
Philco Corporation in Philadelphia. He left in 1956 for the Shockley
Semiconductor Laboratory in Mountain View, Calif."
"A year later he had helped found the Fairchild Camera and Instruments
Corporation's semiconductor division, leaving Shockley with a group
of colleagues in what was to become a common pattern in Silicon Valley."
"In 1968 he and Mr. Moore, another Fairchild scientist, founded Intel..."
"Dr. Noyce was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1979 by President
Jimmy Carter and received the National Medal of Technology in
1987 from President Ronald Reagan. He held more than a dozen patents."...
"He was a frequent but quiet contributor to education and the arts,
said Mr. Jarrett of Intel."
"Dr. Noyce is survived by his wife, his mother, three brothers, four children,
and 12 grandchildren."
. . .
"Computerworld" (June 11, 1990) reports, in part:
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"In 1988, Noyce came out of retirement to head up Sematech.
As for his decision to take a new career path at age 60,
the energetic Noyce replied: 'I thought about missing
some skiing, but then I said [to myself] 'Don't you
think this is more important?' "
. . .
Fred Warshofsky, writing in "The Chip War" (Charles Scribner's Sons,
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New York, 1989), says: (".." quotes are Warshofsky, '..' quotes are Noyce)
"On July 27, 1988 he [Noyce] left his longtime post as vice-chairman
of Intel, one of the major American merchant chip makers, to become
president of SEMATECH...to develop the new manufacturing technologies
American chip makers need to challenge the Japanese. At the
age of sixty, Noyce declared himself too old for the job, but
took it on only after a fruitless search among industry
leaders failed to turn up anyone else either willing or able
enough to fill it. I believe he was moved by a deep sense
of obligation to the industry and the nation. It's the sort of
thing Bob Noyce does."
Of Noyce's management style, Warshofsky continues:
"There were no reserved parking spaces at Fairchild Semiconductor,
no paneled offices, no chauffeured limousines, no layers of middle
management. Young engineers and scientists were hired directly
out of graduate school and thrown immediately into the middle of
major projects. It was sink or swim."
Warshofsky discusses Noyce's opinions on competitiveness:
"Intel's Bob Noyce has little patience with the standard Japanese
response that their market is not closed, merely misunderstood.
'The cries that we don't understand how to sell in
Japan, that's all bullshit,' he [Noyce] snaps bluntly.
'Essentially everything that Intel produces in Japan
is sold in Japan. We are not using Japan as an export
base. It's not as if we don't understand the market;
it's just that we are a non-Japanese company doing
business in Japan. We could do a lot better if the
market were truly open ... So it's not trade barriers,
because the stuff is produced in Japan; it's basic
cultural bias against foreign-owned facilities.'
"[Sematech] will also help to bring manufacturing back as
a respectable, indeed, vital, sector of the economy.
'We are pointing out some very simple truths in that the
service industries are very closely associated
with manufacturing,' [Noyce] told [Warshofsky] during
[their] wide-ranging discussion. 'If manufacturing
disappears, the service industry disappears. You
can't create wealth by taking in each other's laundry.
You've got to make a new shirt now and then.' "
Warshofsky quotes Noyce on education:
" 'There is a great deal of effort spent in the U.S
trying to figure out the proper allocation of the
goodies that come out of this industrial state,'
declares [Noyce]. 'Whether it's how many lawyers
we have or how many social workers or whatever
it may be compared to the number of people
who are producing the goods. And that shows
up in the distribution of subject matter in
our educational system. Much less emphasis
is on the production of wealth and much
greater emphasis is placed on the distribution
of wealth.' "
-oOo-
--
Regards, ken...........klshafer@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu
"I believe he was moved by a deep sense of obligation to the industry and the
nation. It's the sort of thing Bob Noyce does." - F. Warshofsky,"The Chip War"