tim@int13.hf.intel.com (Timothy E. Forsyth) (06/05/90)
As our company's flags fly at half-staff in reverence of the passing of one
of our founders Robert Noyce, I felt it appropriate to post the following
article from The Oregonian. - Tim
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From the Portland, OR "The Oregonian, Monday, June 4, 1990"
"Microchip inventor, Intel Corp. founder Robert Noyce dies"
By Constance L. Hays (New York Times News Service)
Robert N. Noyce, one of the inventors of the microchip that revolutionized
the electronics industry and gave rise to the high technology era, died
Sunday at Seaton Medical Center in Austin, Texas, after suffering a heart
attack at his home. He was 62.
While Noyce's name never became widely known, his work helped make possible
all sorts of products, including the personal computer, the pocket
calculator, programmable coffeemakers and microwave ovens and computerized
flight plans for commercial and military aircraft.
In many ways, Noyce was an embodiment of Silicon Valley, the area of
Northern California that is home to a great many high technology companies,
many of them started by young entrepreneurs.
While his research opened doors for many technical advances, Noyce also
played a leading role in the commercialization of electronics and as an
industry spokesman who frequently lobbied in Washington.
Noyce, who once described his career as the result of a succession of
dissatisfactions, developed a system of interconnecting transistors on a
single silicon chip, known as integrated circuitry.
He was awarded a patent in 1959, and the technology, which could manage
many times more information, quickly became the basis of the modern computer
and permitted a miniaturization of electronics used in many products.
Jack Kilby, a staff scientist at Texas Instruments Inc. who is now retired,
is also recognized as an inventor of the integrated circuit, and holds
patents as well. The two men worked independently.
"Bob Noyce was an instrumental figure in creating the semiconductor
industry, which today is a $50 billion industry driving a $500 billion
electronics industry," said Stan Victor, a spokesman for Texas Instruments.
"He will be missed."
Noyce founded the Intel Corp., which developed the microprocessor that is
the heart of most personal computers, and helped start a number of other
computer companies in Silicon Valley.
"He was considered the mayor of Silicon Valley," said Jim Jarrett, a
spokesman for Intel. A founder of the Semiconductor Industry Association in
1975, Noyce was frequently in Washington to lobby on behalf of semiconductor
manufacturers.
At the time of his death, 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 Semattech would
be difficult.
"He was clearly a person of stature who understood both the technical
aspects of the business as well as the business itself," said Federico Faggin,
who designed the microprocessor at Intel and is now president of Synaptics, a
computer company in San Jose, Calif.
"It's a very big loss of Sematech and for the country, really. I don't
think there is another one like him."
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."
Noyce remained a vice chairman of Intel even after he was named to a search
committee looking for a leader for Sematech, which has a $200 million annual
budget, half from the Department of Defense and half from industry.
After the search process became embarrassingly long and failed to turn up
anyone willing to take the post, Noyce agreed in 1988 to head the consortium,
after initially saying he was too old.
--- end article ---
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>>>> Western Conference Finals: Portland 3, Pheonix 2 - GO BLAZERS! <<<<
Tim Forsyth, tim@int13.hf.intel.com or forsytim@ccm.hf.intel.com
Intel Corp., OEM MicroComputer Platform Division, Hillsboro, Oregon, USA