Robert Noyce - Early Life, Intel Takes Shape, Pursuing Broader Goals, Recognition Of Achievements

Robert Noyce was one of the giants of 20th century high-tech science and the multi-billion dollar business it spawned. Along with 15 other patents, he was a co-inventor of the integrated circuit, a device former National Science Foundation Director Erich Bloch called "the key invention of the 20th century." In addition to his contributions to computer technology, Noyce co-founded two of the most influential companies in the computer industry, Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel. Those companies in large measure established the region around Palo Alto and San Jose, California—now universally known as Silicon Valley—as the premier area for computer research, development, and manufacture; and earned Noyce the nickname "the Mayor of Silicon Valley." For the last decade of his life, Noyce was an outspoken advocate of the American microprocessor and computer industry and actively lobbied in Washington for measures that would protect American companies from the threat of unfair Japanese competition. He died in 1990.