William Shockley. Receiving a call from Shockley in 1955, Noyce said, was like “talking to God.” Photo by Chuck Painter, Courtesy Stanford News Service.
Here and facing page: In these unknown notebook pages, dated August 14, 1956, Noyce gives a full description of a tunnel diode, a device that demonstrated a key theory of quantum mechanics. The man who published the first paper on the device, Leo Esaki, was awarded the 1973 Nobel Prize for Physics for his work.
The eight future founders of Fairchild Semiconductor and the two bankers who pledged to help them find financing signed this dollar bill as their contract with each other. Courtesy Julius Blank.
The eight founders of Fairchild Semiconductor pose in the California sunshine shortly after starting their company in the fall of 1957. Noyce sits front and center, his arm slung over the back of his chair. Seated clockwise from Noyce are Jean Hoerni, Julius Blank, Victor Grinich, Eugene Kleiner, Gordon Moore, C. Sheldon Roberts, and Jay Last. Courtesy Julius Blank.
This check is an early installment on Fairchild Semiconductor’s first sale: 100 transistors, sold to IBM for $150 apiece. Equivalent transistors today cost less than a hundred-thousandth of a penny. Family photos.
In September 1961, Stanford provost Frederick Terman joined Noyce and Fairchild Semiconductor research head Gordon Moore in breaking ground for the company’s new Research and Development building. Family photos.
The other Fairchild founders look at Noyce, who poses near equipment in the production area. Courtesy Julius Blank.
Above: Noyce in 1959, explaining Fairchild Semiconductor’s breakthrough planar process to John Carter, CEO of the firm’s parent company. Carter knew almost nothing about semiconductors. Family photos.
Left: Noyce in about 1962, shortly after Fairchild began selling its integrated circuit. Courtesy Grinnell College Archives.
Several key illustrations from Noyce’s integrated circuit patent.
The first integrated circuit available as a monolithic chip, Fairchild’s 1961 resistor-transistor logic (RTL) flip flop. Courtesy Fairchild Semiconductor.
A Fairchild Semiconductor employee in May 1963 uses a microscope to package chips in the gold “headers” lying in the tray to her right. She is wearing a hairnet and gloves in a company-mandated effort to reduce contamination of the devices in production. Visible in the background is a man supervising the women (always called “girls”) at work. Courtesy Department of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries.
Bob Noyce and manufacturing head Charlie Sporck speak to employees at Fairchild’s Portland, Maine facility. A casual style was a hallmark of Noyce’s approach to management. Courtesy Fairchild Semiconductor.
Walker’s Wagon Wheel was one of several famous after-hours meeting places for semiconductor engineers and other workers. Some firms’ lawyers, concerned corporate secrets might be spilled over drinks, explicitly discouraged employees from frequenting the Wagon Wheel. Photo by Carolyn Caddes. Courtesy Carolyn Caddes and the Department of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries.
Brenda and Roger Borovoy, Betty and Bob Noyce, and Paul Hwoschinsky (in fake mustache and pipe) in Vienna for a licensing deal, pose near a sign they think would amuse their friend Charlie Sporck, who had just left Fairchild for National Semiconductor. Family photos.
Left: Noyce was 41 and happy to be back in the lab at his new startup, Intel, when this photo was taken in 1969. Courtesy Intel Corp.
Below: Nearly the entire staff of the young Intel poses in front of the company’s first building. The tall man in glasses behind Moore is Ted Hoff. To the right of Hoff is Andy Grove, and two people to the left (in the tweed jacket) is Les Vadasz. Courtesy Intel Corp.
Above: This advertisement for Intel’s first microprocessor generated enormous interest within the technical community. Noyce was a driving force behind the microprocessor at Intel. Courtesy Intel Corp.
Right: A pensive or tense moment at Intel in the mid-1970s. Courtesy Intel Corp.
Intel co-founders Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore with Andy Grove, who rose quickly to join them in the “Office of the President,” pose before a chip layout in 1978. Courtesy Intel Corp.
Noyce leading his madrigal group at a Renaissance Faire, 1971. Photo by Jefferson Cotton, Courtesy Jefferson Cotton.
Noyce with Ted Hoff, inventor of the microprocessor, in Noyce’s Intel cubicle, probably in the late 1970s. Courtesy Regis McKenna.
Noyce and Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs at a dinner for Governor Jerry Brown. Jobs is one of many entrepreneurs who count Noyce among their major influences. Courtesy Regis McKenna.
Noyce addresses Japanese engineers during a visit to Tokyo Electric Company (TEC) Okito in October 1978. Noyce enjoyed an unusually close relationship with Japanese semiconductor executives for many years, although he became greatly concerned that their firms might drive American companies out of business. Family photos.
President Jimmy Carter awards Noyce the National Medal of Science in 1980. Family photos.
Noyce celebrates his fiftieth birthday dressed as Superman. His wife Ann Bowers, whom he married in 1975, surprised him with the costume. Family photos.
President Ronald Reagan awards Noyce the National Medal of Technology in 1988. Courtesy Intel Corp.
Noyce speaks at a campus of the University of California. (His wife says he never spoke at Davis.) He was a Regent of the University of California from 1982 to 1988. Family photos.
Noyce grins outside his Intel cubicle, 1983. Photo by Carolyn Caddes. Courtesy Carolyn Caddes and the Department of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries.
Noyce shows off his Volant skis. He was a founding investor in the company. Family photos.
Noyce and his wife Ann Bowers enjoyed skiing together. Note Noyce’s Intel ski cap. Family photos.
Noyce in the cockpit of his World War Two era Seabee airplane. Family photos.
President George H. W. Bush congratulates Ann Bowers and Bob Noyce on Noyce’s Draper Award. Family photos.
Noyce speaks at the official opening of SEMATECH, a joint government-industry manufacturing research consortium. From 1988 until his death in 1990, Noyce served as SEMATECH’s founding CEO. Courtesy SEMATECH.
Noyce prepares to fly the RF-4C at Bergstrom Air Force Base near Austin, Texas, in September 1989. SEMATECH employees secretly arranged the flight as a surprise for Noyce. Family photos.
Noyce and his co-inventor Jack Kilby share the first Charles Stark Draper Award—the so-called “Nobel Prize of Engineering”—for their work on the integrated circuit. Family photos.
Two days before he died, Noyce was surprised to be greeted by dozens of SEMATECH employees wearing t-shirts emblazoned with the phrase “Bob Noyce, Teen Idol” and captioned with a quote from an admirer. Courtesy Intel Corp.
The Man Behind the Microchip Page 62