The Man Behind the Microchip: Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley

I have read many histories of Silicon Valley including thosethat focused on chips, personal computers, venture capitalistsetcetera, but this one is the best. While there is little herespecifically about the rise of personal computers this bookfills in a tremendous amount of the early history of thedevelopment of the chip, while also providing a very revealingportrait of Robert Noyce. The range of information here is verygreat. However, the book is focused on Noyce, its just that itsheds light on a great number of events that are part of theSilicon Valley lore. Leslie Berlin has done a very thorough job here. RobertNoyce was the subject of her Phd and she has been a visitingscholar at Stanford while writing this book. The book has afull set of notes so that the information she is revealing canbe traced back to the sources she has used. She has clearly hadsubstantial help from Robert Noyce's family as there are anumber of elements of this story that could only come from them.It appears that she has interviewed a large number of Noyce'scolleagues including people like Gordon Moore, Andy Grove, andCharlie Sporck and has pretty much gone through almosteverything written by Robert Noyce or about him. There is a listof about 10 Theses she references and references to each ofRobert Noyce's testimonies before congress. Ms Berlin has eveninterviewed the women who had affairs with Robert Noyce. The small town background of Mr Noyce has been written aboutbefore. However, it is clear that the entire family was verywell educated going back a couple generations. It is revealedthat Bob's older brothers also set a strong pace as they weresalutorian and Valadictorians of their class in high school.One of Bob's older brothers ended up becoming a professor ofChemistry at Berkeley. It is clear that Bob was able to havea fairly normal social life at Grinell while amassing a recordstrong enough to gain admission to MITs physics graduate school.Clearly Noyce's interest in the transistor started early as heand his Physics professor were beating their way through Belltechnical reports to understand this work. (probably the reportsthat were enshrined in Shockley's 1955 book on semiconductors) As Ms Berlin makes clear, Noyce struggled a little bitat MIT, having to do some remedial work to fill in holes inhis background. Not surprising since he came from a programwith 2 physics professors. However, apparrently one of hisfellow students, went to one of the faculty members on hisbehalf and without telling Noyce to ask them to give him morefinancial aid as he considered Noyce one of the two smartestguys in the physics grad program. (the other is revealed to beGell-Mann, not bad company) Clearly the faculty agreed to someextent as after a year he was given a fellowship. Not bad togo from struggling to a fellowship in a year in pretty fastcompany. Ms Berlin also discusses Noyce's thesis in a bit ofdetail and does it in a way that the layman can appreciate howit fits in. For me it explains why Noyce chose to work underNottingham, not widely known, when he could have worked for thefar more widely known Slater. With the typical care she hasbrought to this project it is clear that Ms Berlin has hadPhysicists examine this thesis and discuss its contents withher. Noyce was making measurments of surface states. As thiswould be pretty relevant to his work related to the planarprocess as well as the starting of the first MOS company it wasworth doing. I found the section on the Shockley Semiconductor lab alsovery revealing. It has always been clear that William Shockleywas a better scientist than businessman, however Ms Berlinreveals many of the disfunctional characteristics of that grouplike never before. Shockley's limitations as a people managerare clearly mapped. I was not aware of a number of thingsregarding the breakout of the Fairchild traitors, specificallythat Noyce was the last of this group to become committed andthe difficulty this group had in finding an investor. The Fairchild era also contains a number of revelations forme. The evolution of the planar process out of the solutionof a relability problem on the discretes is new to me. It alsobecomes much clearer as to which groups had particular expertiseand went to break off and commercialize their ideas separately.Fairchild as a source of entrepreneurs is legendary, but herethere is more detail that indicated the frustrations thatmay have lead to it and the expertise of the players. I knewthat Charlie Sporck had been the manufacturing manager atFairchild but I didnt know he had been the Operating managerfor a period or that Fairchild's inability to recruit againstother startups because the NY gang refused to allow stockoptions was a problem for them. Essentially Sporck wasFairchild's Andy Grove. Anybody in the valley has probablyexperienced this phenomenon. I'm amazed that Fairchild wassuffering from this in the early 60s. Similarly there are many revealing insights about thestartup of Intel. In the context it becomes easier tounderstand the idea behind the company. I did not know thatTed Hoff was hired to be the computer architecture guru on therecommendation of Stanford faculty and the Busicom project thatlead to the early Microprocessor is discussed in more detailthan I've seen before. In summary this is an outstanding book which is done withgreat care and attention to detail by a young historian. Thebook reads very easily for both the person who is nontechnicalas well as someone with a tech background. There is plenty herefor all. I think Ms Berlin should get the Pulitzer prize forbiography for this one.

I started in the semiconductor/integrated circuit business at Bell Labs in 1962, and am still in it. The story of Bob Noyce is the story of our industry, and I found the book to be a fascinating view of both the man and the industry he helped to found. The sections on memory development at Intel really struck a chord, as we at Bell Labs were trying to catch up with Intel and had difficulties similar to those described in the book. We started by reverse-engineering and then fabricating a copy of the Intel 1103, the first 1,024 bit memory. Like Intel, we tried to place four 1K memories on a ceramic substrate, and found the same problems of low assembly yield. All of these problems associated with a fledgling technology are described in accurate but readable detail by Leslie Berlin. But beyond the technical issues, she captures the go-go atmosphere of the IC business at the time. It was a time of incredible hardware and manufacturing innovation, marked by start-ups, company-hopping, instant wealth and shattered dreams. For a much more detailed and technical account of the IC industry, I strongly recommend Ross Knox Bassett's book, "To the Digital Age." But for an accessible history of the people and technologies of that industry, Leslie Berlin's biography of Bob Noyce is unmatched. I would only add that my wife, who is non-technical, read and greatly enjoyed the book.

Leslie's detail of Robert Noyce was brilliant and actually inspired me to write my own book of which I reference Leslie's work throughout.

Well told story, ripe with lessons, and inspiring through examples. Highly recommend this book, it's a timeless one for the ages.

This author has done a wonderful job on a subject, for all its contemporary ubiquity, has not been comprehensively explored. This is the story of the history of the Silicon Valley, and its creation though the efforts on one pivotal personality.Robert Noyce is her subject.His brilliant scientific talents were equally balanced by his extraordinary leadership and entrepreneurial skills. In fact, Noyce, known informally as the "Mayor of the Silicon Valley", and a legend in his lifetime, has been out of mind for a new generation. Not surprising, for a place that lives forever in the future, and values so highly, innovation, creativity, openness, and risk....values which Noyce did so much to make central to its business culture. Berlin redresses the default.For sure, Noyce was the right man at the right time. From his innovation of the first silicon transistor, to the integrated circuit, and then to the microprocessor, there is Noyce, always at the center of the action. His co-creation of Fairchild Electronics with his fellow defectors from Shockley Electronics, is the stuff of myth. This one company under his leadership in fact, spun off more than 100 start-up "fair children", including the last one instigated by Noyce himself...a little outfit we know as Intel.There's much well researched information and detail in this book, that if the reader has any interest in a rare history of the place which has changed the world, this is an excellent place to start. Berlin's treatment of the technical side, to me, a layman, was also to the point, informative, and clear. Berlin provides a rare look back at a man, and the place, which created today's world wide vibrant electronics industry.I found this book inspiring and motivational. And Robert Noyce, I came to see as he was, a true American hero of our own times.Of further interest is the well directed (with Berlin as one of the consultants), PBS "American Experience" video, "Silicon Valley",  Silicon Valley American Experience .

Awesome, wonderful and terrific. Thanks a bunch Leslie. You wrote a fantastic book and every serious IT professional should have read and keep on their shelf. I have enjoyed it thoroughly.

When we consider all the advances in technology, the Microchip is probably the invention that has impacted our lives the most. This biography of Robert Noyce is very interesting and worth reading. You don't have to be a computer geek to appreciate this story of this remarkable man and the technology he gave birth to.

It's a great book, by reading it you get an insight on how the digital revolution began and the men and women behind it. All to often people who have made great contributions to society are over looked or not acknowledged.I think this book sets the record straight and is a tribute to the pioneers of the digital age

Very good book about an underknown character who was a major influence on our modern world

I was very interested in the story 'Bob' Noyce and after the first few chapters was very impressed. I wanted to learn about the man, his education, his early years at fairchild and subsequent starting of Intel.The initial two thirds of the book are great, interesting, well written, informative, all you could ask really.However the last third of the book then delves into Bobs involvement with (albeit loosely) politics and setting up trade bodies for the good for the American semiconductor industry. Sadly here the book for me became boring and repetitive. Bob was involved with an organisation Sematech and for a large number of pages nearly every sentence is littered with this one word.Its like the early and innovative years are given depth and insight but his later life speaks less and less of his thoughts and innovations.Couple this with the fact that a large number of pages at the back of the book are just references which are numerically indexed and littered through the pages. On a Kindle I don't want to be flipping back and forth. I initially thought at 300+ pages it was a reasonable cost. Given the number of pages given to references I think the book is overpriced.