Remembering a Tech legend

We all remember the marketing catchphrase ‘Intel Inside’ and came to believe the ubiquitous CPU manufactured by Intel is a ‘must have’ for our Laptops and Home PCs. Well, the ‘Intel inside’ campaign that established Intel as a household brand name began its humble journey in 1968 in what is now the famous Silicon Valley in the US. Intel founder Gordon Moore passed away last month (24 March 2023) in Hawaii at the age of 94. Moore, who co-founded the Intel Corporation with Robert Noyce, was a legend in his lifetime and in more ways than Steve Jobs of APPLE or Bill Gates of Microsoft touched and shaped our everyday lives. According to a New York Times article published a day after his death,‘Mr. Moore never aspired to be a household name but his vision and life’s work enabled innovation to bring laptop computers to hundreds and millions of people and embedded microprocessors into everything from calculators, wristwatches, washing machines to cellphones, cars, and Jets.It all started in 1947 with the invention of the Transistor by Three Bell Laboratories scientists, William Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter H. Brattain. In layman’s terms, a transistor is simply an electronic switch but can be more accurately described as a semiconductor device for amplifying, controlling, and generating electrical signals. Coined by John R. Pierce for Bell Laboratories, Transistor is a contraction of the term ‘trans resistance’ derived from its key function, which is – to transfer resistance. For their invention, which ushered in the ‘solid state’ revolution in electronics, William Shockley and his two colleagues were awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1956.
Shortly thereafter, Shockley left Bell Labs to start his own company -Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory – in Palo Alto, California, arguably Silicon Valley’s first tech startup. William Shockley saw great potential for his invention and hired superb engineers and physicists including Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce to begin the manufacture of Transistors. Unfortunately, William Shockley lacked the management skills required to drive a team of such outstanding talent and very soon eight of his best and brightest, rebelled to leave and seed a new company. The eight defectors, whom Shockley branded ‘traitorous eight’, which included Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce contributed $500 each and founded the Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation along with $1.3 million in backing from the aircraft pioneer Sherman Fairchild. The new company began operations of transistor manufacture in 1957 and soon became a pioneer in fabricating integrated circuits –placing multiple transistors interconnected on a single piece of silicon, thereby creating a silicon microchip. In 1965, Moore predicted that the number of transistors that could be placed on a silicon chip would double at yearly intervals, which became known as the mythical Moore’s Law, essentially leading to miniaturization and extraordinary growth in industrial electronics. The success of Moore’s law made Gordon Moorewealthy, famous, and highly respected in the global semiconductor industry where his forecast of growth of chip technology at exponential rates remains true even to this day. Though he later revised his law to increase the doubling period to two years besides hinting at limitations and its eventual ending, the ability to squeeze more and more electronic circuitry into less and less space has not diminished during his lifetime in a tribute to his foresight. According to Prof. Chris Miller of TuftsUniversity, the Author of
‘The Chip Wars’, the first chip manufactured in the 1960s had only 4 transistors which multiplied to 65000 by 1975 on a chip the size of a postage stamp. Today’s chips are microminiaturized and carry billions of transistors on unbelievably small, beyond the range of the naked eye 5–10-microchips. Cutting the long story short, Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce left Fairchild Semiconductor to establish Integrated Electronics Corporation in 1968 focusing on semiconductor memory. Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce were soon joined by Andy Grove, a colleague from their Fairchild days, and the trinity-shaped Integrated Electronics Corporation, which was later shortened to Intel, into a star of Silicon Valley with an enviable market share and formidable technological domination. Gordon Moore presided over Intel as CEO, Chairman, and Chairman emeritus before retiring in 2006. Moore was born in San Francisco in 1929 and had a brilliant academic career receiving a Ph.D. in Chemistry and Physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech)in 1954. Moore was interested in teaching but could not land a job in education and after a short stint at Applied Physics Laboratory at John Hopkins University, he gravitated towards private industry and entrepreneurship. He called himself an accidental entrepreneur and in 2014, Moore’s net worth was a whopping $ 7 Billion. He led a frugal life, preferring modest shirts and run-of-the-mill khakis from Costco discount Stores to tailored suits. He was a true philanthropist and as publicly revealed by Intel, his Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation made generous contributions to the tune of $ 5.1 billion to charitable causes, environmental conservation, Science, and patient care improvements. A visionary whose work and deeds touched the lives of countless, he made meaningful contributions towards creating an enabling and enriching experience for all through inspiring leadership-driven by. technological innovation and philanthropic generosity. Salutations to the tech legend who made it all possible.