1955 One day, an ugly new member came to Stanford Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory. The first impression of this young man in his twenties is politeness. His mature and prudent, but also reflects a natural command ability. He is bob noyce, the future founder of Intel Corporation. He was sharp-edged when he was young.
Noyce liked to disassemble the engine of his father's Model T Ford when he was a child. When he discovered the existence of transistor in 1948, he was shocked and fascinated by it, so he joined the team led by shockley. But in 1957, due to a technical difference, he left shockley and became the eighth traitor.
Noyce joined Fairchild after leaving Shockley, and his enthusiasm and genius in dealing with people were quickly accepted by people in the company. 1959 In July, due to the formal birth of the integrated circuit he invented, this invention will have a revolutionary impact on modern science and technology.
Strangely, however, the integrated circuits at this time did not cause any sensation, because the 500,000 integrated circuits produced by 1963 at an average price of $25 were appreciated as treasures, while the 300 million transistors produced at less than 1 in the same period were only regarded as a whimsical work of art.
However, Noyce saw the bright future of integrated circuits and made his own decision. The computer entered a new era from 1968 to 1969. 1968 bob noyce left Fairchild Company to start Intel. The following year, Intel introduced the Intel 4004 chip under the guidance of Noyce, which had a far-reaching impact on the computer industry, and this was the beginning of Intel's career. Since then, Intel has become a specialized R&D and production base for microprocessors, with increasing achievements. Its turnover has gone from zero in 1968 to 960 million dollars in 198 1, and now it is more than 30 billion dollars.
entrepreneurial story
University is a beautiful life, and the versatile Noyce is like a duck to water, occupying the limelight. He studies physics and mathematics at the same time, and gets the best results with the least effort. He said that he heard the news of the invention of the transistor as if he had been hit by an atomic bomb. It proves that there are other things that can be amplified besides traditional electron tubes. He was one of the first people to do experiments with transistors.
He also developed the work habit of inventors in college. Noyce later said that one of the main qualities of inventors is laziness, because inventors really don't like to solve problems in difficult ways. Noyce tried his best to write the correct answer in the physics exam, but the papers he sent back were always marked red. The professor explained that he solved the problem in a complicated way and listed several simple solutions for Noyce in a few words. This shocked him, and he has been looking for simple methods ever since.
Noyce made a big mistake at a party because of being naughty, and failed to escape the punishment of the school. After some transactions, the punishment was not heavy: I was suspended for one semester and assigned to new york Fair Life Insurance Company to do statistical work.
Noyce was humiliated by the notorious pig stealing incident, but he also learned about the world of flowers in new york. 1949 At the beginning of this year, he returned to grinnell, and he was completely new. He studied very hard and obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Grinnell College in autumn. Noyce, 22, was admitted as a doctoral student at MIT. The doctoral thesis is "Study on the Photoelectric Phenomenon on Insulator Surface". At a concert, Noyce and makeup artist Elizabeth fell in love at first sight, and 1953 got married right after graduation.
There is no doubt that he wants to do some practical development with his knowledge, rather than engage in pure scientific research. Then Noyce naturally turned to industry. Only in the field of production can any solid-state research be carried out. Electronics companies are actively recruiting physics graduates, and Noyce has received invitations from many companies, including Bell Labs, IBM, RCA and Fercot. Noyce did not choose a big company, but went to a smaller company in Fekete. He is indifferent to material pursuits. "My only dream is to buy two pairs of shoes at the same time, because I grew up wearing my brothers' old shoes." Fercot Company in Philadelphia has just added a semiconductor department, and he imagines that his future is the best there. He started working for his transistor department. This is three years. Three years later, he was convinced that Fekete was not interested in his research.
10 month is a turning point. At the technical report meeting in Washington, shockley was deeply moved by his report. "1 month later, shockley called and said that he planned to open a company on the west coast and wanted to discuss the employment with me." Noyce couldn't believe his luck ―― the giant in the semiconductor industry actually called him himself.
Noyce's brother happens to teach in Berkeley. He often talks about the abundant sunshine and lovely climate there. Coupled with the prestige of shockley, the father of transistors, Noyce bought a house near the laboratory in shockley without hesitation. Of course, he got the job.
The "Whampoa Military Academy" in the semiconductor industry was established.
Noyce has a bright smile, a strong handshake and is familiar with semiconductor technology, which is most suitable for public appearances. Noyce's strongest prediction is that transistors have the ability to change the buying habits of all customers. However, due to shockley's paternalism and two years' efforts, Noyce resigned together with seven other people, that is, "eight traitors". Noyce is the only one among eight people who seems to have some leadership skills. Therefore, in the newly established Fairchild Company, he took the lead as the general manager.
Noyce never thought that he would have the opportunity to participate in a newly established company and might make a lot of money. He likes the idea very much. The parent company reserves the right to acquire the new company at any time for $3 million in the next eight years. Fairchild Semiconductor Company started their business in a two-story warehouse in California, only 12 block away from the company in shockley. Gordon Moore, Jean Horney and five other rebels from shockley started their careers in Noyes. At that time, Shockley and Fairchild were the only two semiconductor companies in Silicon Valley.
According to investor Sherman fairchild, the reason why he agreed to set up a new branch in his own company for engineers separated from shockley Semiconductor Company was mainly influenced by Noyce. He trusted the 32-year-old boy and was convinced that the transistor development prospect he described would be realized. Therefore, at the age of 62, he was willing to take risks, spent a lot of money and placed high hopes on these young people with little business experience.
This is the "western frontier period" of the semiconductor industry. The only way to get professionals in this field is to dig people from other companies. Fairchild is of course the initiator of this talent war.
It was a period of melee between transistor and semiconductor industries, which prepared a big stage for Fairchild's debut. With technological innovation, the company soon became the second largest empire in the semiconductor era. Then it solved the problem of silicon transistor that troubled other companies and won the respect of the whole electronics industry.
Inventor of integrated circuit
As soon as Noyce took the position of "general manager", he found himself in the same position as shockley. But he and shockley made the opposite choice, noble, upright and just, trusting and respecting subordinates. Noyce is undoubtedly a leader, a natural leader, but he is not a great manager. He is too honest to be fired or demoted even in a company crisis. He was in charge of Fairchild for nearly 65,438+00 years, and finally the company was in crisis because he lost control of the company.
Shockley's career has declined rapidly, while Noyce's company has been improving. Its business is stimulated by space competition. This is 1957, which is a successful year for the Soviet artificial earth satellite. Manufacturers eager to miniaturize equipment have turned from electron tube equipment to transistors. Like engineers and scientists in other fields, Noyce needs to solve many problems: the more wires in the circuit, the farther the electronic pulse will go; Because there are not many ways to make the pulse travel faster (it can't be faster than the speed of light), the best way to make a fast computer is to reduce the propagation distance of the pulse by shrinking the circuit board.
1958, Jean Horney found a solution: put a layer of silicon crystal on the N-P-N wafer and stick it with silicon to prevent the influence of pollutants. They call this process "planar technology" because the oxide plane can remain on top of silicon. Noyce immediately asked a lawyer to write a patent application.
In the first few weeks of 1959, Noyce's idea gradually took shape as a so-called "single chip idea". If a transistor without any moving parts can be glued to a small piece of coated silicon through a few thin wires, then it can form a complete electronic system on the same piece of silicon-it may contain many transistors, resistors and other electronic circuit elements. In this way, after the transistor is produced, there is no need for manual connection.
1On October 23rd, Noyce wrote the first note about this project. "This will be ideal," he wrote in his experimental notes. "Putting multiple components on a single silicon wafer will realize the internal connection of components in the process flow, so that the volume and weight will be reduced and the price will be reduced." After studying Honeywell's planar technology, Noyce realized that this technology can be applied to the precise connection of different regions of N-P-N transistors. This idea doesn't need any wires. He can spread them on the oxide with thin wires. All internal connections of transistors can be completed in one production process.
In Fairchild Semiconductor, Noyce's greatest achievement is the invention of integrated circuits. When kilby developed the integrated circuit on the germanium chip at Texas Instruments, Noyce and Moore had set their eyes on the silicon chip directly, because the commercial prospect of silicon far exceeded that of germanium. Noyce later said that kilby's method "is more like a brute force method. It just makes a semiconductor into a certain shape, makes it produce some resistance regions, and then connects these regions with wires, which still requires a lot of manual labor".
Several pages of proposals created Intel.
Noyce was the director of research and development when he founded Fairchild. 1959 became the vice president and general manager of the company. He advocates simplicity and efficiency. He has no luxurious personal office, no driver and no special parking space. The company has been streamlined, so if someone needs to make a large purchase, he doesn't have to get approval in advance.
1In August, 968, Noyce resigned together with Gordon Moore, who was in charge of research and development, and Andy Grove, an expert in process development. They were the last of Fairchild's original founders to leave. In Noyce's view, Fairchild pays too much attention to the development of new products unrelated to the semiconductor field. Noyce's departure naturally surprised many people, because he has been so deeply integrated into Fairchild. At this time, he personally owned 12 integrated circuits and transistors and patents.
Three people first went to visit Wang Yase Roark, a venture capitalist. With a few pages of the roughest business plan, Roark agreed to invest in them in a short time. Later, Noyce joked that he always needed only five minutes to raise enough venture capital-$2.5 million. Because the most important word in the business plan is "bob noyce", and Roque is also a faithful believer in Moore's Law.
In the afternoon, Roark called 15 and got the exact answer from 15. The founding shareholder of the new company is Noyce's alma mater, grinnell School, Iowa. Today, the incident of stealing pigs has long since vanished. Noyce has been the chairman of the board of directors of the college and invested $300,000 in the school. Noyce and Moore each contributed $250,000, and Roark himself contributed $300,000, and served as the first chairman of the company.
Intel was founded in a concrete building surrounded by a pear orchard in Santa Clara, California. Noyce didn't want to make semiconductors to compete with Fairchild, so he decided to set foot in the almost undeveloped part of the computer industry and focus on the memory market. In early August, 1968, the new company reported on the front page of Palo Alto Times. 1969 Spring, the first batch of products were introduced: bipolar processing 64-bit memory chips. After entering the market quickly, it made a good start. Today, 30 years later, the common128 MB memory on computers is 2 million times that of the original.
After the first batch of products were shipped, employees of the company 18 gathered in the coffee shop of the company, holding champagne to congratulate them. There were three wounded soldiers with plaster on their feet at the party. Among them, Noyce broke his leg while skiing, and another employee broke his ankle while skydiving. These injuries can reflect the vitality of the company at that time.
From 197 1 to 1973, the value of the company's stock tripled. At this time, Noyce's assets reached $654.38 million+85 million. 1978 Intel's sales reached $66 million. In an advertisement of 1982, Intel claimed that it monopolized 16 of the 22 major technological breakthroughs in microelectronics in the past decade.
By 1983, Intel's sales reached1000 million dollars for the first time, and increased to1300 million dollars by 1985. No one can figure out Noyce's personal wealth.
Write it at the end
Bob noyce is undoubtedly successful. Intel Corporation, founded by him, has become the largest semiconductor manufacturer in the world, and is also the leading international manufacturer of personal computer network products and communication products, whose products cover all aspects of the IT industry. It can be said that his foresight and determination make Intel the most prestigious and courageous company. His microprocessor has brought great changes to human life. Today, when we talk about Intel's Pentium and Pentium II, Noyce's name should not be forgotten.