Robert Noyce | |
|---|---|
 Noyce in 1959 | |
| Born | Robert Norton Noyce (1927-12-12)December 12, 1927 Burlington, Iowa, U.S. |
| Died | June 3, 1990(1990-06-03) (aged 62) Austin, Texas, U.S. |
| Education | Grinnell College (BA) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD) |
| Occupation | Physicist |
| Known for | Co-founder ofFairchild Semiconductor andIntel |
| Successor | Gordon Moore |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 4 |
| Awards | Faraday Medal(1979) Harold Pender Award(1980) John Fritz Medal(1989) |
| Website | www |
Robert Norton Noyce (December 12, 1927 – June 3, 1990), nicknamed "the Mayor of Silicon Valley", was an Americanphysicist and entrepreneur who co-foundedFairchild Semiconductor in 1957 andIntel Corporation in 1968. He was also credited with the realization of the firstmonolithic integrated circuit or microchip made with silicon, which fueled thepersonal computer revolution and gaveSilicon Valley its name.[nb 1][1]
Noyce founded The Noyce School of Applied Computing within the College of Engineering at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan awarded him theNational Medal of Technology, and in 1989, he was inducted into the U.S. Business Hall of Fame, with President George H. W. Bush delivering the keynote. In 1990, he received a Lifetime Achievement Medal alongsideJack Kilby andJohn Bardeen during the bicentennial celebration of thePatent Act.
Noyce was born on December 12, 1927, inBurlington, Iowa,[2][3][4][5][6] the third of four sons[4] of the Rev. Ralph Brewster Noyce.[7] His father graduated fromDoane College,Oberlin College, and theChicago Theological Seminary and was also nominated for aRhodes Scholarship.[8]
His mother, Harriet May Norton, was the daughter of the Rev. Milton J. Norton, aCongregationalclergyman, and Louise Hill. She was a graduate of Oberlin College and prior to her marriage, she had dreams of becoming a missionary.[9] JournalistTom Wolfe described her as "an intelligent woman with a commanding will".[10]
Noyce had three siblings: Donald Sterling Noyce, Gaylord Brewster Noyce and Ralph Harold Noyce.[4][11] His brother Donald would go on to become a respected professor and associate dean of undergraduate affairs in theUC Berkeley College of Chemistry; Robert later created the Donald Sterling Noyce Prize to reward excellence in undergraduate teaching atBerkeley.[12] His brother Gaylord would go on to become a respected professor ofpractical theology and dean of students atYale Divinity School; in 1961, while a young professor, he was arrested for being one of theFreedom Riders of thecivil rights movement.[13]
Noyce's earliest childhood memory involved beating his father atping pong and feeling shocked when his mother reacted to the news of his victory with a distracted "Wasn't that nice of Daddy to let you win?" Even at the age of five, Noyce felt offended by the notion of intentionally losing. "That's not the game", he sulked to his mother. "If you're going to play, play to win!"[11]
When Noyce was twelve years old in the summer of 1940, he and his brother built a boy-sized aircraft, which they used to fly from the roof of the Grinnell College stables. Later he built a radio from scratch and motorized his sled by welding a propeller and a motor from an old washing machine to the back of it.[14] His parents were both religious but Noyce became an agnostic and irreligious in later life.[15]
Noyce grew up inGrinnell, Iowa. While in high school, he exhibited a talent for mathematics and science and took theGrinnell College freshman physics course in his senior year. He graduated from Grinnell High School in 1945 and entered Grinnell College in the fall of that year. He was the star diver on the 1947Midwest Conference Championship swim team.[10] While at Grinnell College, Noyce sang, played the oboe and acted. In Noyce's junior year, he got in trouble for stealing a 25-pound pig from the Grinnell mayor's farm and roasting it at a schoolluau. The mayor wrote to his parents stating that "In the agricultural state of Iowa, stealing a domestic animal is a felony which carries a minimum penalty of a year in prison and a fine of one dollar." Noyce faced expulsion from school butGrant Gale, Noyce's physics professor and president of the college, did not want to lose a student with Noyce's potential. They compromised with the mayor so that Grinnell would compensate him for the pig, and suspend Noyce for one semester. He returned in February 1949.[16] He graduatedPhi Beta Kappa with a BA inphysics andmathematics in 1949. He also received a single honor from his classmates: the Brown Derby Prize, which recognized "the senior man who earned the best grades with the least amount of work".[17]
While Noyce was an undergraduate, he was fascinated by the field of physics and took a course in the subject that was taught by professorGrant Gale. Gale obtained two of the first transistors ever produced byBell Labs and showed them off to his class. Noyce was hooked.[10][18][19] Gale suggested that he apply to thedoctoral program in physics atMIT, which he did.[20]
Noyce had a mind so quick that his graduate school friends called him "Rapid Robert".[21] He received hisdoctorate inphysics from MIT in 1953.
After graduating from MIT in 1953, Noyce took a job as a research engineer at thePhilco Corporation inPhiladelphia. He left in 1956 to joinWilliam Shockley, a co-inventor of the transistor and eventualNobel Prize winner, at theShockley Semiconductor Laboratory[22] inMountain View, California.
Noyce left a year later with the "traitorous eight"[23] upon having issues with Shockley's management style, and co-founded the influentialFairchild Semiconductor corporation. According toSherman Fairchild, Noyce's impassioned presentation of his vision was the reason Fairchild had agreed to create the semiconductor division for the traitorous eight.
Noyce was vital to theinvention of the integrated circuit. AfterJack Kilby invented the firsthybrid integrated circuit (hybrid IC) in 1958,[24] Noyce in 1959 independently invented a new type of integrated circuit, themonolithic integrated circuit (monolithic IC).[25][26] It was more practical than Kilby'simplementation. Noyce's design was made ofsilicon, whereas Kilby's chip was made ofgermanium. Noyce's invention was the firstmonolithic integrated circuit chip.[27] Unlike Kilby's IC which had external wire connections and could not be mass-produced, Noyce's monolithic IC chip put all components on a chip of silicon and connected them with aluminum lines.[26] The basis for Noyce's monolithic IC was theplanar process, developed in early 1959 byJean Hoerni. In turn, the basis for Hoerni's planar process were the siliconsurface passivation andthermal oxidation methods developed byMohamed Atalla in 1957.[28][29]
Noyce andGordon Moore foundedIntel in 1968 when they left Fairchild Semiconductor.[21][30]Arthur Rock, the chairman of Intel's board and a major investor in the company, said that for Intel to succeed, the company needed Noyce, Moore andAndrew Grove. And it needed them in that order. Noyce: the visionary, born to inspire; Moore: the virtuoso of technology; and Grove: the technologist turned management scientist.[31] Noyce served as the first CEO, until 1975,[32] when he was succeeded by Moore. The relaxed culture that Noyce brought to Intel was a carry-over from his style at Fairchild Semiconductor. He treated employees as family, rewarding and encouraging teamwork. Noyce's management style could be called "roll up your sleeves". He shunned fancy corporate cars, reserved parking spaces, private jets, offices, and furnishings in favor of a less-structured, relaxed working environment in which everyone contributed and no one received lavish benefits. By declining the usual executive perks he stood as a model for future generations of Intel CEOs.
At Intel, he oversaw invention of themicroprocessor as a concept byTed Hoff and design of the first commercial microprocessorIntel 4004 byFederico Faggin, which was his second revolution.[33][34][35]
In 1953, Noyce marriedElizabeth Bottomley,[36] who was a 1951 graduate ofTufts University. While living inLos Altos, California, they had four children: William B., Pendred, Priscilla, and Margaret. Elizabeth lovedNew England, so the family acquired a 50-acre coastal summer home inBremen, Maine. Elizabeth and the children would summer there.[37] Robert would visit during the summer, while continuing to work at Intel. They divorced in 1974.[38]
On November 27, 1974, Noyce marriedAnn Schmeltz Bowers. Bowers, a graduate ofCornell University,[39] also received an honorary Ph.D. fromSanta Clara University, where she was a trustee for nearly 20 years. She was the first director of personnel for Intel Corporation and the first vice president of human resources forApple Inc. She was a founding trustee and served as chair of the board for the Noyce Foundation, founded in 1990.[40] Bowers died on January 24, 2024, at the age of 86.
Noyce kept active his entire life. He enjoyed reading Hemingway, and he flew his own airplane and also participated inhang-gliding andscuba diving. Noyce believed thatmicroelectronics would continue to advance in complexity and sophistication well beyond its current state; this led to the question of what use society would make of the technology. In his last interview, Noyce was asked what he would do if he were "emperor" of the United States. He said that he would, among other things, "...make sure we are preparing our next generation to flourish in a high-tech age. And that means education of the lowest and the poorest, as well as at the graduate school level."[41]
Noyce suffered aheart attack at age 62 at home on June 3, 1990, and later died at theSeton Medical Center inAustin,Texas.[42]
In July 1959, he filed forU.S. patent 2,981,877 "Semiconductor Device and Lead Structure", a type ofintegrated circuit. This independent effort was recorded only a few months after the key findings of inventorJack Kilby. For his co-invention of the integrated circuit and its world-transforming impact, three presidents of the United States honored him.
Noyce was a holder of many honors and awards. PresidentRonald Reagan awarded him theNational Medal of Technology in 1987.[43] Two years later, he was inducted into theU.S. Business Hall of Fame sponsored byJunior Achievement,[44] during ablack tie ceremony keynoted by PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush.[45] In 1990 Noyce – along with, among others, Jack Kilby and transistor inventorJohn Bardeen – received a "Lifetime Achievement Medal" during the bicentennial celebration of the Patent Act.
Noyce received theFranklin Institute'sStuart Ballantine Medal in 1966.[46] He was awarded theIEEE Medal of Honor in 1978 "for his contributions to the silicon integrated circuit, a cornerstone of modern electronics."[47][48] In 1979, he was awarded theNational Medal of Science. He also receivedFaraday Medal in 1979. Noyce was elected a Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1980.[49] TheNational Academy of Engineering awarded him its 1989Charles Stark Draper Prize.[50]
Noyce gave the commencement address to an enthusiastic School of Engineering at UC Santa Barbara in 1985.
The science building at his alma mater,Grinnell College, is named after him.
On December 12, 2011, Noyce was honored with aGoogle Doodle celebrating the 84th anniversary of his birth.[51]
In 2000, Kilby received theNobel Prize in Physics; in his acceptance ("Nobel Lecture"), he mentions a small number of people whose work contributed to the success of integrated circuits, mentioning Noyce three times.[52]
TheNoyce Foundation was founded in 1990 by his family. The foundation was dedicated to improving public education in mathematics and science in gradesK-12.[40] The foundation announced that it would end operations in 2015.[53]
California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly), established The Noyce School of Applied Computing in the College of Engineering with a $60 million gift from the Robert N. Noyce Trust in June of 2022.
In 1990, Congress established the Robert Noyce National Math and Science Teachers Corps Act which authorizes awards up to 5,000 scholarships annually to assist individuals in obtaining a teaching degree.[54] These awards are granted to institutions of higher education who administer the projects after successful proposal submissions through the National Science Foundation's Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program ("Noyce").[55] Pre-service teachers are recruited by their college/university and must be STEM majors. Scholarship recipients to agree to teach science or mathematics in a high-need school districts for at least two years for each fiscal year the recipient received such a scholarship. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) works with the NSF Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program to identify and disseminate information about effective practices and strategies for attracting, selecting, and preparing new K-12 STEM teachers and retaining them in the STEM teacher workforce.[56]
Noyce was granted 15 patents. Patents are listed in order issued, not filed.
Note: In 1960Clevite Corporation acquiredShockley Semiconductor Laboratory, a subsidiary ofBeckman Instruments, for whom Noyce worked.[57]
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| Business positions | ||
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| Preceded by Company founded | CEO,Intel 1968–1975 | Succeeded by |
