1 00:00:04,519 --> 00:00:12,119 Speaker 1: Technology with tech Stuff from how stuff Works dot Com. 2 00:00:12,119 --> 00:00:15,120 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I am your host, 3 00:00:15,360 --> 00:00:19,160 Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I am a senior writer with how stuff 4 00:00:19,280 --> 00:00:22,480 Speaker 1: Works dot Com. I say that every show, and yet 5 00:00:22,520 --> 00:00:24,680 Speaker 1: some people are still surprised to know there is a 6 00:00:24,680 --> 00:00:27,920 Speaker 1: how stuff Works dot Com. There is and explains how 7 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:30,920 Speaker 1: stuff works, not just technology, but all sorts of things. 8 00:00:31,160 --> 00:00:33,279 Speaker 1: So if you've ever been curious how something works, check 9 00:00:33,320 --> 00:00:37,640 Speaker 1: out our website. Chances are we've got some information about it. Today, 10 00:00:37,800 --> 00:00:41,120 Speaker 1: we're going to do another one of my wonderful episodes 11 00:00:41,479 --> 00:00:45,360 Speaker 1: about the history of a big company in technology. And 12 00:00:45,440 --> 00:00:48,040 Speaker 1: I use the word wonderful somewhat tongue in cheek because 13 00:00:48,440 --> 00:00:51,120 Speaker 1: it's weird to toot one's own horn. But I genuinely 14 00:00:51,360 --> 00:00:55,800 Speaker 1: enjoy researching these episodes because I always learned something that 15 00:00:55,920 --> 00:00:59,880 Speaker 1: I didn't know before about companies that I'm really from. 16 00:01:00,120 --> 00:01:03,279 Speaker 1: You're with from a product standpoint, but maybe not so 17 00:01:03,360 --> 00:01:09,800 Speaker 1: much behind the scenes. That's certainly the case with today's topic. Intel. Now, 18 00:01:09,920 --> 00:01:15,000 Speaker 1: Intel is a major player in the computers industry, obviously 19 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:19,720 Speaker 1: in the semiconductor and microprocessor industries. Big big deal. But 20 00:01:20,240 --> 00:01:23,080 Speaker 1: I wanted to take this opportunity to kind of talk 21 00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:26,400 Speaker 1: about the history of the company, how it developed over time, 22 00:01:26,680 --> 00:01:29,320 Speaker 1: and sort of the contributions it has made to the 23 00:01:29,360 --> 00:01:35,880 Speaker 1: industry of electronics and computers. Right, So, chances are, at 24 00:01:35,959 --> 00:01:38,520 Speaker 1: some point or another in your life you've used a 25 00:01:38,600 --> 00:01:41,240 Speaker 1: device that had a little sticker on it that said 26 00:01:41,280 --> 00:01:45,520 Speaker 1: that there was Intel inside. The company is famous for 27 00:01:45,560 --> 00:01:49,440 Speaker 1: producing the chips that make our computers and electronics so powerful. 28 00:01:49,760 --> 00:01:53,000 Speaker 1: So they're famous for making the stuff that makes our 29 00:01:53,120 --> 00:01:57,600 Speaker 1: other stuff work. But what is the actual story behind 30 00:01:57,600 --> 00:02:00,480 Speaker 1: the company. Well, understand that we're gonna have to do 31 00:02:00,560 --> 00:02:03,760 Speaker 1: something that I'm infamous for doing, which is that we're 32 00:02:03,760 --> 00:02:07,760 Speaker 1: gonna have to go roll the clock back well before 33 00:02:07,840 --> 00:02:11,160 Speaker 1: there ever was an Intel, Because I really do think 34 00:02:11,200 --> 00:02:14,799 Speaker 1: that to have a true understanding of any subject, not 35 00:02:14,880 --> 00:02:18,799 Speaker 1: just a company, but really anything, you need to go 36 00:02:18,960 --> 00:02:22,960 Speaker 1: back quite a bit and get the foundation set before 37 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:26,280 Speaker 1: you start just spouting off facts. I could tell you 38 00:02:26,440 --> 00:02:29,160 Speaker 1: that Intel was founded in the late nineteen sixties and 39 00:02:29,320 --> 00:02:33,080 Speaker 1: pick up from there, but without understanding the pathway that 40 00:02:33,280 --> 00:02:36,480 Speaker 1: lad there, you don't have as full and appreciation, At 41 00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:40,880 Speaker 1: least in my opinion, that's the case, certainly personally for me, 42 00:02:41,240 --> 00:02:44,560 Speaker 1: that's the case. So we're gonna look at a couple 43 00:02:44,560 --> 00:02:48,200 Speaker 1: of companies that preceded Intel to understand why there's an 44 00:02:48,200 --> 00:02:50,680 Speaker 1: Intel in the first place, and we'll talk about the 45 00:02:50,720 --> 00:02:55,760 Speaker 1: Traitorous Eight. There's treachery involved in this story, and we'll 46 00:02:55,800 --> 00:02:58,480 Speaker 1: also talk about Moore's Law that's going to play a 47 00:02:58,480 --> 00:03:01,639 Speaker 1: big part in this DISCUSSI and as well, because all 48 00:03:01,639 --> 00:03:04,639 Speaker 1: of this is wrapped up in the birth of Intel, 49 00:03:05,240 --> 00:03:08,600 Speaker 1: and it's a story of not just technology, but of people. 50 00:03:09,080 --> 00:03:12,760 Speaker 1: And as we all know, people are complicated critters. We're 51 00:03:12,800 --> 00:03:16,760 Speaker 1: capable of great and terrible things, and sometimes things that 52 00:03:16,800 --> 00:03:19,960 Speaker 1: are both great and terrible at the same time. So 53 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:24,040 Speaker 1: today we're gonna look at some stories about people who 54 00:03:24,240 --> 00:03:29,279 Speaker 1: made amazing contributions to us in the form of engineering, 55 00:03:29,639 --> 00:03:34,560 Speaker 1: advancing science, understanding the physics of electronics at a deeper 56 00:03:34,639 --> 00:03:38,560 Speaker 1: level that allowed us to create incredible gadgets. But we'll 57 00:03:38,600 --> 00:03:42,120 Speaker 1: also learn some not so nice stuff, some things about 58 00:03:42,120 --> 00:03:47,600 Speaker 1: people that were at least disturbing, if not worse. But 59 00:03:47,720 --> 00:03:52,640 Speaker 1: much of our story is going to revolve around semiconductors. 60 00:03:52,680 --> 00:03:56,360 Speaker 1: So as a refresher, a semiconductor is a class of 61 00:03:56,440 --> 00:03:59,840 Speaker 1: material that has a much lower resistance to the flow 62 00:03:59,880 --> 00:04:03,960 Speaker 1: of electrical current in one direction than it does in 63 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:07,280 Speaker 1: the other direction. If you listen to my episodes about 64 00:04:07,320 --> 00:04:12,240 Speaker 1: the history of electricity, you remember about the concept of resistance, right, 65 00:04:12,320 --> 00:04:16,160 Speaker 1: that's the tendency of any given material to resist the 66 00:04:16,200 --> 00:04:19,359 Speaker 1: flow of electrons. So, if you have something that's a 67 00:04:19,400 --> 00:04:22,839 Speaker 1: really good conductor, it tends to have a very low resistance. 68 00:04:22,920 --> 00:04:27,440 Speaker 1: It allows electrons to move through fairly free freely. But 69 00:04:27,520 --> 00:04:30,320 Speaker 1: something with a very high resistance, like a very very 70 00:04:30,400 --> 00:04:33,800 Speaker 1: high resistance that's an insulator, it doesn't allow electrons to 71 00:04:33,839 --> 00:04:37,320 Speaker 1: pass through nearly as easily. If you're able to take 72 00:04:37,320 --> 00:04:40,960 Speaker 1: a conductor and you're able to lower the temperature near 73 00:04:41,240 --> 00:04:45,640 Speaker 1: to absolute zero, it ends up becoming a superconductor, meaning 74 00:04:45,680 --> 00:04:48,520 Speaker 1: that there's no resistance at all, and it allows electrons 75 00:04:48,560 --> 00:04:53,760 Speaker 1: to pass through without any resistance. So resistance is this 76 00:04:54,520 --> 00:04:58,360 Speaker 1: tendency to again resist the flow of electrons. It turns 77 00:04:58,360 --> 00:05:03,000 Speaker 1: out that in some materials this is a variable where 78 00:05:03,640 --> 00:05:07,839 Speaker 1: under one set of circumstances, electrons will flow through very easily, 79 00:05:08,080 --> 00:05:11,960 Speaker 1: and under a different set of circumstances using that same material, 80 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:16,160 Speaker 1: electrons will not flow through nearly as easily. These are 81 00:05:16,200 --> 00:05:21,800 Speaker 1: what we call semiconductors because sometimes they conduct and sometimes 82 00:05:21,839 --> 00:05:24,919 Speaker 1: they do not. It can be useful to think of 83 00:05:24,960 --> 00:05:28,719 Speaker 1: this as sort of like an inclined plane or a slide. 84 00:05:29,240 --> 00:05:32,159 Speaker 1: If you have a marble and you let it roll 85 00:05:32,279 --> 00:05:36,000 Speaker 1: down a slide, it does so easily with very little effort, right. 86 00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:37,640 Speaker 1: You just have to move it so it hits that 87 00:05:37,680 --> 00:05:39,839 Speaker 1: inclined plane and gravity does the rest of the work. 88 00:05:40,400 --> 00:05:42,800 Speaker 1: To move the marble back up the slide, you have 89 00:05:42,880 --> 00:05:45,640 Speaker 1: to put forth some effort. You have to push the 90 00:05:45,680 --> 00:05:48,920 Speaker 1: marble up the slide, working against gravity to do so. 91 00:05:49,480 --> 00:05:52,600 Speaker 1: Semiconductors are kind of similar, except we're talking about electrons, 92 00:05:52,680 --> 00:05:57,560 Speaker 1: not not large macro objects like marbles. And it's not 93 00:05:57,640 --> 00:06:00,240 Speaker 1: a perfect analogy, but it allows you to kind of 94 00:06:00,320 --> 00:06:04,760 Speaker 1: understand what's going on now. A semiconductor's tendency to allow 95 00:06:04,960 --> 00:06:07,640 Speaker 1: or prevent electricity from flowing through it can be altered 96 00:06:07,680 --> 00:06:10,919 Speaker 1: in a few different ways, depending upon the material. So, 97 00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:15,560 Speaker 1: for example, some semiconductor material will change its resistance if 98 00:06:15,600 --> 00:06:19,560 Speaker 1: you introduce some impurities into it. This is called doping, 99 00:06:20,120 --> 00:06:24,920 Speaker 1: where you strategically add in some of these impurities to 100 00:06:26,200 --> 00:06:29,880 Speaker 1: change it from being say pure silicon, to dope silicon. 101 00:06:30,120 --> 00:06:34,040 Speaker 1: And this would allow for the transfer of electrons in 102 00:06:34,040 --> 00:06:37,720 Speaker 1: one direction more easily, Or you might be able to 103 00:06:37,800 --> 00:06:40,919 Speaker 1: change the resistance of a semiconductor by applying a magnetic 104 00:06:41,040 --> 00:06:44,480 Speaker 1: field to it, or there are other ways of changing 105 00:06:44,640 --> 00:06:47,839 Speaker 1: Like I mentioned with superconductors, that's temperature. So there are 106 00:06:47,839 --> 00:06:50,600 Speaker 1: a lot of different factors that can change the way 107 00:06:50,640 --> 00:06:54,919 Speaker 1: a conductor conducts electricity, whether it's with little resistance or 108 00:06:55,000 --> 00:06:59,680 Speaker 1: with a great deal of resistance. The first recorded use 109 00:07:00,080 --> 00:07:04,160 Speaker 1: of the word semi conducting that I know of came 110 00:07:04,240 --> 00:07:07,680 Speaker 1: from Alessandro Volta. And again, if you listen to those 111 00:07:07,760 --> 00:07:11,200 Speaker 1: history of Electricity episodes, then you know that Volta was 112 00:07:11,240 --> 00:07:14,960 Speaker 1: an eighteenth century philosopher and inventor who created an early 113 00:07:15,080 --> 00:07:19,320 Speaker 1: battery called the voltaic pile. But as brilliant as Volta was, 114 00:07:19,400 --> 00:07:22,960 Speaker 1: he did not actually lay down any theories about what 115 00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:26,440 Speaker 1: semiconductors are or what was going on, largely because he 116 00:07:26,480 --> 00:07:30,000 Speaker 1: did not have a full understanding of what electricity was. Remember, 117 00:07:30,400 --> 00:07:34,760 Speaker 1: for for centuries people thought electricity was some form of fluid. 118 00:07:35,280 --> 00:07:37,560 Speaker 1: They hadn't didn't have a full understanding of what it 119 00:07:37,640 --> 00:07:41,720 Speaker 1: actually was. In the nineteenth century, you had Michael Faraday. 120 00:07:42,080 --> 00:07:45,280 Speaker 1: He was another scientist and he noticed that silver sulfides 121 00:07:45,320 --> 00:07:50,160 Speaker 1: electrical resistance would change at different temperatures. So he made 122 00:07:50,160 --> 00:07:55,160 Speaker 1: this observation. If he changed the temperature of silver sulfide, 123 00:07:55,480 --> 00:07:59,680 Speaker 1: the resistance would also change. Johan Hittorf, who was another 124 00:07:59,720 --> 00:08:02,840 Speaker 1: science has published a study about temperature dependence of the 125 00:08:02,880 --> 00:08:08,720 Speaker 1: electrical conductivity of certain materials, adding to more knowledge about 126 00:08:09,280 --> 00:08:14,640 Speaker 1: the nature of semiconductors. Several scientists formulated theories about semiconductors 127 00:08:14,640 --> 00:08:16,680 Speaker 1: and the factors that would cause them to change their 128 00:08:16,680 --> 00:08:19,840 Speaker 1: resistance to electrical flow, but it wouldn't be until the 129 00:08:19,880 --> 00:08:23,600 Speaker 1: mid twentieth century that someone figured out how they could 130 00:08:23,600 --> 00:08:28,440 Speaker 1: be used to solve what was becoming a very tricky problem. Now, 131 00:08:28,480 --> 00:08:35,319 Speaker 1: initially this problem was all about signal amplification. Now, signals 132 00:08:35,320 --> 00:08:39,439 Speaker 1: are very important in all sorts of different electronic applications, 133 00:08:39,720 --> 00:08:43,360 Speaker 1: and often the signal that you generate may be very 134 00:08:43,440 --> 00:08:45,720 Speaker 1: weak and you need to amplify it. You need to 135 00:08:45,760 --> 00:08:48,760 Speaker 1: increase the amplitude of the signal in order for you 136 00:08:48,840 --> 00:08:51,400 Speaker 1: to do something useful with it. Uh that it was 137 00:08:51,440 --> 00:08:57,080 Speaker 1: certainly the case with telephone communication. In the early twentieth century, 138 00:08:57,440 --> 00:09:01,160 Speaker 1: a little company called A T and T was struggling 139 00:09:01,200 --> 00:09:04,199 Speaker 1: with this because they were laying out a coast to 140 00:09:04,400 --> 00:09:10,440 Speaker 1: coast network of telephone lines. They were allowing for transcontinental 141 00:09:10,760 --> 00:09:13,439 Speaker 1: phone calls, but they needed to be able to boost 142 00:09:13,600 --> 00:09:17,320 Speaker 1: the signal that went along the telephone lines so that 143 00:09:17,640 --> 00:09:20,600 Speaker 1: the thing you heard on one end would be intelligible, 144 00:09:21,120 --> 00:09:23,480 Speaker 1: so that if I'm talking in Atlanta and I want 145 00:09:23,520 --> 00:09:26,720 Speaker 1: someone in San Francisco to hear me, the signal remains 146 00:09:26,760 --> 00:09:31,119 Speaker 1: strong throughout the entire journey from Atlanta to San Francisco. 147 00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:34,400 Speaker 1: So they needed to figure out a way to amplify signals, 148 00:09:34,920 --> 00:09:41,480 Speaker 1: and initially they were looking at using vacuum tubes. Now, 149 00:09:41,520 --> 00:09:44,360 Speaker 1: A T and D was really interested in innovating in 150 00:09:44,400 --> 00:09:48,679 Speaker 1: this space, largely because the company was starting to worry 151 00:09:48,760 --> 00:09:52,839 Speaker 1: about its patents, and it purchased several patents from Alexander 152 00:09:52,880 --> 00:09:57,720 Speaker 1: Graham Bell, who we attribute the creation of the telephone too, 153 00:09:58,440 --> 00:10:00,959 Speaker 1: and those patents were what allowed A. T and T 154 00:10:01,120 --> 00:10:06,840 Speaker 1: to maintain a strategic advantage over other potential competitors. But 155 00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:13,400 Speaker 1: patents expect they expire after a while, so once they expire, 156 00:10:13,480 --> 00:10:16,880 Speaker 1: that information isn't available for anyone to use without having 157 00:10:16,920 --> 00:10:20,480 Speaker 1: to pay a license. So the patent allows you to 158 00:10:20,679 --> 00:10:23,400 Speaker 1: see how how people are doing things, but it prevents 159 00:10:23,440 --> 00:10:27,280 Speaker 1: you from following that same example unless you license the 160 00:10:27,320 --> 00:10:31,359 Speaker 1: information from the patent holder. Well, once the patent expires, 161 00:10:32,120 --> 00:10:34,960 Speaker 1: it's free game. So A T and T was looking 162 00:10:35,000 --> 00:10:37,000 Speaker 1: at these patents expiring and they said, well, we really 163 00:10:37,040 --> 00:10:40,520 Speaker 1: need to innovate in other spaces to maintain our competitive advantage. 164 00:10:40,840 --> 00:10:43,160 Speaker 1: And you've heard me probably talk about A T and T. 165 00:10:43,280 --> 00:10:46,520 Speaker 1: I did some episodes about the company not that long ago, 166 00:10:46,840 --> 00:10:52,080 Speaker 1: and they were very good at maintaining their advantage for 167 00:10:52,120 --> 00:10:54,719 Speaker 1: a really long time, even after they got broken up 168 00:10:54,840 --> 00:11:00,640 Speaker 1: by the United States government. Well, they the company was 169 00:11:00,679 --> 00:11:03,760 Speaker 1: so concerned about this they even brought Thomas Vale out 170 00:11:03,800 --> 00:11:07,000 Speaker 1: of retirement, that was their former president of the company, 171 00:11:07,040 --> 00:11:09,319 Speaker 1: and they wanted to really tackle this problem. And again, 172 00:11:09,360 --> 00:11:13,800 Speaker 1: initially they started to use vacuum tubes as signal amplifiers. 173 00:11:14,840 --> 00:11:17,720 Speaker 1: These were devices that were invented by a guy named 174 00:11:17,760 --> 00:11:20,080 Speaker 1: Lee de Forest. And one day I will have to 175 00:11:20,120 --> 00:11:23,880 Speaker 1: do a full episode about vacuum tube technology and exactly 176 00:11:23,920 --> 00:11:27,080 Speaker 1: how it works, but it's a little outside the scope 177 00:11:27,120 --> 00:11:31,079 Speaker 1: of this episode. Now, one thing you should know is 178 00:11:31,160 --> 00:11:34,240 Speaker 1: vacuum tubes were not a perfect technology. They had a 179 00:11:34,240 --> 00:11:37,040 Speaker 1: lot of drawbacks. They were delicate, they could burn out, 180 00:11:37,480 --> 00:11:40,880 Speaker 1: so you'd have to replace them fairly regularly. Uh. They 181 00:11:41,080 --> 00:11:44,760 Speaker 1: were also very large and bulky, so you could not 182 00:11:44,880 --> 00:11:48,199 Speaker 1: have a small form factor for whatever device you were 183 00:11:48,280 --> 00:11:51,839 Speaker 1: using that had vacuum tube amplifiers in it, And they 184 00:11:51,880 --> 00:11:56,080 Speaker 1: generated a lot of heat, which in some applications is problematic. 185 00:11:56,400 --> 00:11:59,400 Speaker 1: Now there's some things where people still love to use 186 00:11:59,480 --> 00:12:04,439 Speaker 1: vacuum tubes as their signal amplifier. People who use amplifiers 187 00:12:04,440 --> 00:12:11,320 Speaker 1: for musical instruments love, generally speaking, amplifiers that use vacuum tubes. 188 00:12:11,880 --> 00:12:15,400 Speaker 1: They those are valued very highly in the musical field, 189 00:12:15,440 --> 00:12:19,520 Speaker 1: but for something like long distance telephone calls, it was 190 00:12:19,559 --> 00:12:22,840 Speaker 1: seen as sort of a band aid to the problem. 191 00:12:22,920 --> 00:12:25,480 Speaker 1: And so the company A T and T was really 192 00:12:25,520 --> 00:12:29,199 Speaker 1: interested in figuring out an alternative to these, and they 193 00:12:29,240 --> 00:12:33,079 Speaker 1: tasked their research and development ARM to try and come 194 00:12:33,160 --> 00:12:36,280 Speaker 1: up with something. That ARM was known as Bell Labs, 195 00:12:36,760 --> 00:12:39,120 Speaker 1: and they wanted to find an alternative to vacuum tubes, 196 00:12:39,280 --> 00:12:41,560 Speaker 1: something that could boost a signal similar to the tubes, 197 00:12:41,840 --> 00:12:43,880 Speaker 1: but take up a fraction of the size and put 198 00:12:43,920 --> 00:12:49,400 Speaker 1: out very little heat comparatively speaking. The team leader for 199 00:12:49,480 --> 00:12:52,760 Speaker 1: this project at Bell Labs was a guy named William 200 00:12:52,920 --> 00:12:57,640 Speaker 1: Bill Shockley. In a way, Shockley would become partly responsible 201 00:12:57,640 --> 00:13:01,040 Speaker 1: for the foundation of Intel, but it wasn't because he 202 00:13:01,200 --> 00:13:03,240 Speaker 1: was a founder of Intel. He wasn't. He was not 203 00:13:03,360 --> 00:13:07,480 Speaker 1: among the co founders of Intel. However, you could argue 204 00:13:07,480 --> 00:13:11,040 Speaker 1: that he was at least partly responsible for Intel ever existing. 205 00:13:12,120 --> 00:13:15,760 Speaker 1: Shockley was born in London, England, but both his parents 206 00:13:15,760 --> 00:13:19,800 Speaker 1: were American. His father was a mining engineer who had 207 00:13:19,880 --> 00:13:22,319 Speaker 1: contract work in the UK, and so I had moved 208 00:13:22,320 --> 00:13:25,000 Speaker 1: his family to the United Kingdom. His mother was one 209 00:13:25,040 --> 00:13:27,680 Speaker 1: of the first women to graduate Stanford, and she held 210 00:13:27,720 --> 00:13:32,560 Speaker 1: degrees in mathematics and art. Now, apparently the Shockley family 211 00:13:33,080 --> 00:13:36,680 Speaker 1: was a group of curmudgeon lely folks. They were a 212 00:13:36,679 --> 00:13:42,600 Speaker 1: little grouchy from all accounts. Uh. They might have had 213 00:13:42,679 --> 00:13:47,199 Speaker 1: arrestibility as a family feature. His parents never seemed to 214 00:13:47,200 --> 00:13:49,199 Speaker 1: be able to stay in one place for more than 215 00:13:49,200 --> 00:13:51,520 Speaker 1: a year, so they moved around a lot, and Shockley 216 00:13:51,559 --> 00:13:54,679 Speaker 1: himself would develop many of the same characteristics as his parents, 217 00:13:55,120 --> 00:13:57,800 Speaker 1: being a little difficult to be around, which is probably 218 00:13:57,800 --> 00:14:01,960 Speaker 1: a generous way of putting it. Now. Eventually, Shockley attended 219 00:14:02,000 --> 00:14:05,520 Speaker 1: the California Institute of Technology or cal Tech back in 220 00:14:05,640 --> 00:14:10,080 Speaker 1: nineteen and he majored in physics. He was apparently really 221 00:14:10,640 --> 00:14:14,480 Speaker 1: quite the prankster over at cal Tech, supposedly, as pranks 222 00:14:14,480 --> 00:14:17,360 Speaker 1: were the stuff of legend. I did not, however, look 223 00:14:17,400 --> 00:14:20,440 Speaker 1: into those for this episode. Maybe in the future one. 224 00:14:21,400 --> 00:14:24,360 Speaker 1: He pursued a doctorate at m I T in nineteen 225 00:14:24,440 --> 00:14:27,480 Speaker 1: thirty three, and then he became an apprentice to a 226 00:14:27,520 --> 00:14:30,960 Speaker 1: man named Philip Morse, and as a result he got 227 00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:34,760 Speaker 1: a job at Bell Labs. He gained a reputation as 228 00:14:34,800 --> 00:14:38,600 Speaker 1: a brilliant and innovative problem solver. Now this is a 229 00:14:38,600 --> 00:14:41,440 Speaker 1: bit of a tangent, but it's an example of his 230 00:14:41,600 --> 00:14:46,000 Speaker 1: sense of innovation. Uh. He was one of the people 231 00:14:46,040 --> 00:14:49,640 Speaker 1: who made an early design for a nuclear reactor. He 232 00:14:49,720 --> 00:14:52,800 Speaker 1: actually partnered with a guy named James Fisk to work 233 00:14:52,840 --> 00:14:55,560 Speaker 1: on this. They were trying to suss out how you 234 00:14:55,600 --> 00:14:59,800 Speaker 1: could make a sustained nuclear reaction, and Shockley's idea was 235 00:14:59,840 --> 00:15:03,400 Speaker 1: that you could use uranium and little chunks, and you 236 00:15:03,440 --> 00:15:06,360 Speaker 1: could separate the chunks of uranium from each other using 237 00:15:06,400 --> 00:15:09,520 Speaker 1: some other material, and the purpose of that material would 238 00:15:09,520 --> 00:15:13,320 Speaker 1: be to slow down but not capture neutrons as they're 239 00:15:13,320 --> 00:15:17,000 Speaker 1: given off by the uranium, and by doing that allowing 240 00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:20,400 Speaker 1: the neutrons to hit other atoms of you two thirty 241 00:15:20,480 --> 00:15:25,080 Speaker 1: five and thus generate more neutrons as the YOUTO thirty 242 00:15:25,120 --> 00:15:29,360 Speaker 1: five would decay, and these new these neutrons would then 243 00:15:29,680 --> 00:15:33,960 Speaker 1: move out to again uh impact other you too thirty 244 00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:37,640 Speaker 1: five atoms and sustain the reaction so that you would 245 00:15:37,680 --> 00:15:42,120 Speaker 1: just continuously have this release of radioactive energy. Now, their 246 00:15:42,160 --> 00:15:45,240 Speaker 1: work would end up being classified by the US government, 247 00:15:45,680 --> 00:15:49,080 Speaker 1: as this was during World War two and considered highly 248 00:15:49,200 --> 00:15:53,840 Speaker 1: dangerous material. It turned out that the scientists who were 249 00:15:53,880 --> 00:15:57,320 Speaker 1: working on the Manhattan Project we're concentrating on essentially the 250 00:15:57,360 --> 00:16:01,760 Speaker 1: same thing that Fiskin and Shockley we're thinking about, except, 251 00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:04,400 Speaker 1: of course, Shockley and fisk were mostly interested in a 252 00:16:04,520 --> 00:16:07,520 Speaker 1: nuclear reactor, whereas the Manhattan Project was all about a 253 00:16:07,560 --> 00:16:11,120 Speaker 1: more uncontrolled nuclear reaction to create a bomb. But they 254 00:16:11,160 --> 00:16:14,000 Speaker 1: were all working on similar things. They didn't have any 255 00:16:14,040 --> 00:16:16,400 Speaker 1: knowledge of each other because the US government was very 256 00:16:16,480 --> 00:16:19,920 Speaker 1: much concerned with keeping this stuff secret and safe from 257 00:16:19,960 --> 00:16:23,960 Speaker 1: potential enemies, so they didn't know anything about each other's 258 00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:27,760 Speaker 1: projects until after World War two had ended. Now, before 259 00:16:27,800 --> 00:16:30,720 Speaker 1: the war, Shockley had actually worked with a guy named 260 00:16:30,760 --> 00:16:35,480 Speaker 1: Walter Brittaine who together they were trying to create this 261 00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:40,200 Speaker 1: alternative to vacuum tube technology, a solid state alternative to 262 00:16:40,400 --> 00:16:43,680 Speaker 1: vacuum tube amplifiers. But while they were working on it, 263 00:16:43,680 --> 00:16:46,320 Speaker 1: it didn't go anywhere. They couldn't create something that was 264 00:16:46,360 --> 00:16:50,960 Speaker 1: actually working. Then the war happened and their attentions were elsewhere. 265 00:16:51,520 --> 00:16:55,520 Speaker 1: But after the war, Shockley decided to try this again. 266 00:16:55,560 --> 00:16:59,000 Speaker 1: They brought on another theorist over to Bell Labs named 267 00:16:59,160 --> 00:17:03,600 Speaker 1: John Bardine now Bardein and Britain we're starting to work 268 00:17:03,640 --> 00:17:07,280 Speaker 1: together closely to try and create this alternative vacuum tubes. 269 00:17:08,000 --> 00:17:13,000 Speaker 1: And Shockley was the administrative leader for their team, but 270 00:17:13,720 --> 00:17:16,600 Speaker 1: he was mostly working on his own, on his own 271 00:17:16,600 --> 00:17:20,320 Speaker 1: little processes and inventions, so he would occasionally stop in 272 00:17:20,760 --> 00:17:23,879 Speaker 1: see what the two were working on, give some guidance 273 00:17:23,960 --> 00:17:27,359 Speaker 1: or maybe some suggestions, and then he would head off 274 00:17:27,359 --> 00:17:30,679 Speaker 1: and work on his own some more so, he was 275 00:17:30,720 --> 00:17:35,080 Speaker 1: not actually part of the team that on December six, 276 00:17:35,480 --> 00:17:40,680 Speaker 1: ninety seven unveiled the first working transistor, a solid state 277 00:17:40,720 --> 00:17:44,240 Speaker 1: alternative to vacuum tube technology. In staid that was Britain 278 00:17:44,320 --> 00:17:48,520 Speaker 1: and Bardin who created that first point contact resist transistor, 279 00:17:49,280 --> 00:17:52,640 Speaker 1: and that would become the foundation for the electronics industry. 280 00:17:52,760 --> 00:17:56,760 Speaker 1: The transistor. That is not the point contact version, just 281 00:17:56,880 --> 00:18:01,400 Speaker 1: the transistor in general. And I've done episodes about transistor, 282 00:18:01,480 --> 00:18:03,200 Speaker 1: so I'm not going to talk about it too much. 283 00:18:03,240 --> 00:18:07,159 Speaker 1: But the reason our electronics are so small is because 284 00:18:08,240 --> 00:18:11,280 Speaker 1: engineers developed the transistor. Otherwise we would still be dependent 285 00:18:11,320 --> 00:18:13,800 Speaker 1: upon vacuum tubes, and that would really limit the types 286 00:18:13,840 --> 00:18:17,119 Speaker 1: of technology we could have at our disposal because they 287 00:18:17,160 --> 00:18:20,680 Speaker 1: would be so bulky and hot. Uh So it really 288 00:18:20,760 --> 00:18:26,200 Speaker 1: did open up an enormous world of opportunity for really 289 00:18:26,800 --> 00:18:30,280 Speaker 1: everyone ultimately, but especially a T and T early on 290 00:18:30,880 --> 00:18:36,520 Speaker 1: now Shockley reportedly had a complicated reaction to the development 291 00:18:36,680 --> 00:18:39,920 Speaker 1: of this first transistor. On one hand, he was really 292 00:18:39,960 --> 00:18:42,520 Speaker 1: proud of his team. He was leading a team that 293 00:18:42,680 --> 00:18:47,480 Speaker 1: had made a major scientific and engineering breakthrough with the 294 00:18:47,480 --> 00:18:51,880 Speaker 1: invention of the transistor. But on the other end, he 295 00:18:52,119 --> 00:18:55,520 Speaker 1: was a little disappointed and frustrated that he was not 296 00:18:55,840 --> 00:18:58,600 Speaker 1: directly part of this team. And he also had his 297 00:18:58,720 --> 00:19:01,159 Speaker 1: pride hurt quite a bit because he had attempted to 298 00:19:01,240 --> 00:19:04,120 Speaker 1: do the same thing before World War Two but could 299 00:19:04,119 --> 00:19:06,560 Speaker 1: never get it to work. But these other two guys, 300 00:19:06,640 --> 00:19:09,280 Speaker 1: they got it to work. So I am a feeling 301 00:19:09,280 --> 00:19:12,080 Speaker 1: that he felt a little upset that he did not 302 00:19:12,240 --> 00:19:16,680 Speaker 1: come up with the solution to this problem, rather these 303 00:19:16,720 --> 00:19:20,840 Speaker 1: other two guys did. He didn't let that completely derail him. However, 304 00:19:21,400 --> 00:19:24,880 Speaker 1: while he was in a hotel room in Chicago, where 305 00:19:24,920 --> 00:19:29,040 Speaker 1: he was attending the American Physical Society convention, he came 306 00:19:29,119 --> 00:19:32,399 Speaker 1: up with an alternative to the point contact transistor called 307 00:19:32,440 --> 00:19:37,119 Speaker 1: the sandwich transistor, which was easier to manufacture than the 308 00:19:37,240 --> 00:19:41,840 Speaker 1: point contact type, so it ended up immediately being a 309 00:19:41,880 --> 00:19:45,840 Speaker 1: replacement for this initial design of transistors. It did the 310 00:19:45,920 --> 00:19:49,800 Speaker 1: same thing in a different form factor. So while he 311 00:19:49,880 --> 00:19:52,679 Speaker 1: was a little might have been a little bitter about 312 00:19:52,760 --> 00:19:55,880 Speaker 1: not being in on the team when they made this breakthrough, 313 00:19:56,240 --> 00:20:00,439 Speaker 1: he then immediately almost made an improvement to the designed 314 00:20:00,520 --> 00:20:04,320 Speaker 1: to make it more practical. A T and T made 315 00:20:04,320 --> 00:20:06,960 Speaker 1: a decision. It was kind of a political decision on 316 00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:10,600 Speaker 1: the back end, because you had Britain and Bardine, who 317 00:20:10,600 --> 00:20:14,119 Speaker 1: were the two guys who actually invented the transistor. But 318 00:20:14,160 --> 00:20:17,320 Speaker 1: then you had Shockley, who was the administrative lead of 319 00:20:17,359 --> 00:20:20,920 Speaker 1: the team and who had at least had some input, 320 00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:24,720 Speaker 1: although not directly responsible for the invention, and A T. 321 00:20:24,840 --> 00:20:26,800 Speaker 1: Wanted to make sure they didn't step on any toes, 322 00:20:26,920 --> 00:20:30,120 Speaker 1: so they made a decision where they said that any 323 00:20:30,200 --> 00:20:33,760 Speaker 1: photo of the transistor that was to include the development 324 00:20:33,760 --> 00:20:37,320 Speaker 1: team would also have to have Shockley in it, sort 325 00:20:37,320 --> 00:20:41,159 Speaker 1: of as an uh a way of saying his contributions 326 00:20:41,200 --> 00:20:45,920 Speaker 1: were important or instrumental for the development of the transistor. Now, 327 00:20:45,960 --> 00:20:48,600 Speaker 1: this also tended to rub other people the wrong way, 328 00:20:48,720 --> 00:20:52,199 Speaker 1: people who said he didn't have nearly enough involvement to 329 00:20:52,280 --> 00:20:57,000 Speaker 1: justify being in every single photo of this transistor. So 330 00:20:57,200 --> 00:21:01,040 Speaker 1: it created a little bit of drama. And also Shockley 331 00:21:01,160 --> 00:21:05,040 Speaker 1: was reportedly difficult to work with at times. He had 332 00:21:05,040 --> 00:21:10,879 Speaker 1: a very um, forceful and somewhat brusque personality that people 333 00:21:11,560 --> 00:21:16,680 Speaker 1: didn't always enjoy being around. I'm dancing around it a lot, 334 00:21:16,800 --> 00:21:20,119 Speaker 1: but it's largely because I never met Shockley, so I 335 00:21:20,160 --> 00:21:23,960 Speaker 1: can't tell any firsthand information. I'm merely reporting what other 336 00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:27,840 Speaker 1: people have said and even third and fourth hand accounts 337 00:21:27,840 --> 00:21:29,480 Speaker 1: of that sort of stuff. So I like to be 338 00:21:29,520 --> 00:21:32,440 Speaker 1: careful and not put too many words and too many 339 00:21:32,440 --> 00:21:37,040 Speaker 1: people's mouths if I can. Shockley, to his credit, always 340 00:21:37,040 --> 00:21:40,080 Speaker 1: tried to make sure that any stories that were about 341 00:21:40,160 --> 00:21:43,840 Speaker 1: this transistor indicated that Britaine and Bardine had been the 342 00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:46,639 Speaker 1: ones to make the breakthrough so he wasn't trying to 343 00:21:46,800 --> 00:21:50,359 Speaker 1: steal credit, he wasn't claiming it for his own. He 344 00:21:50,400 --> 00:21:53,320 Speaker 1: wanted to make sure that the people responsible were credited 345 00:21:53,359 --> 00:21:56,960 Speaker 1: with their work. But often Shockley would be cited as 346 00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:01,640 Speaker 1: the primary or sometimes sole inventor of the transistor. That 347 00:22:01,720 --> 00:22:05,280 Speaker 1: the narrative sort of became. He had been working on it, 348 00:22:06,160 --> 00:22:09,840 Speaker 1: he was derailed by World War two, came back and 349 00:22:09,880 --> 00:22:12,320 Speaker 1: now it's a thing, and he would point out that's 350 00:22:12,359 --> 00:22:15,639 Speaker 1: an oversimplification of what had happened in many different respects. 351 00:22:16,520 --> 00:22:19,080 Speaker 1: And in nineteen fifty six he was awarded the Nobel 352 00:22:19,200 --> 00:22:22,719 Speaker 1: Prize in Physics for his work on the transistor, along 353 00:22:22,720 --> 00:22:25,640 Speaker 1: with Britain and Bardin. But the fact that he also 354 00:22:25,680 --> 00:22:28,400 Speaker 1: got a Nobel Prize for this when he wasn't directly 355 00:22:28,440 --> 00:22:32,280 Speaker 1: involved with the invention of the first working transistor again 356 00:22:32,520 --> 00:22:41,120 Speaker 1: upset some people. Uh Shockley would end up completely alienating 357 00:22:41,200 --> 00:22:44,480 Speaker 1: himself from Britain and Bardein. Neither of them wanted to 358 00:22:44,520 --> 00:22:46,679 Speaker 1: work with him anymore. They felt felt that it was 359 00:22:46,720 --> 00:22:51,320 Speaker 1: a difficult working relationship. Um Bartein would and Britain would 360 00:22:51,359 --> 00:22:54,520 Speaker 1: actually both refuse to work with Shockley, and in nineteen 361 00:22:54,560 --> 00:22:59,040 Speaker 1: fifty three Shockley himself left Bell Labs, and first he 362 00:22:59,080 --> 00:23:01,959 Speaker 1: went back to cal Tech and he worked there for 363 00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:04,440 Speaker 1: a while, but he was looking for something more permanent, 364 00:23:05,240 --> 00:23:10,920 Speaker 1: and then he encountered a financier named Arnold Beckman, and 365 00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:15,600 Speaker 1: with Beckman's help and some funding, Shockley founded a new 366 00:23:15,720 --> 00:23:21,920 Speaker 1: company in California called the Shockley Semiconductor Company. They picked 367 00:23:21,920 --> 00:23:26,080 Speaker 1: a location near Stanford in northern California. Shockley thought that 368 00:23:26,080 --> 00:23:30,639 Speaker 1: that was an attractive spot, that the the the weather, 369 00:23:30,720 --> 00:23:34,119 Speaker 1: the climate there was really nice. The location was beautiful. 370 00:23:34,840 --> 00:23:36,760 Speaker 1: It was close to Stanford, so it would make it 371 00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:41,000 Speaker 1: easy to recruit students who are already at Stanford directly 372 00:23:41,040 --> 00:23:44,840 Speaker 1: out of school to come work at at Shockley Semiconductor. 373 00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:48,560 Speaker 1: So he thought of this as a y strategy. And 374 00:23:48,600 --> 00:23:51,320 Speaker 1: in fact, Shockley had a reputation for being able to 375 00:23:51,359 --> 00:23:57,400 Speaker 1: recognize brilliant scientists and engineers. Maybe he couldn't manage them 376 00:23:57,480 --> 00:24:00,440 Speaker 1: because of his personality, but he certainly could wrecking eys them, 377 00:24:00,480 --> 00:24:02,880 Speaker 1: and so he was really good at recruiting people who 378 00:24:02,920 --> 00:24:08,080 Speaker 1: would be very very strong performers in the semiconductor industry. 379 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:14,240 Speaker 1: By the way, Shockley Semiconductor would become the second company 380 00:24:14,359 --> 00:24:18,400 Speaker 1: in Silicon Valley, the This is the early early days 381 00:24:18,400 --> 00:24:22,639 Speaker 1: of Silicon Valley, before you had countless companies there. And 382 00:24:22,760 --> 00:24:26,920 Speaker 1: Shockley Semiconductor was the second such company in Silicon Valley. 383 00:24:26,960 --> 00:24:30,199 Speaker 1: The first one was Hewitt Packard, which was found in 384 00:24:30,240 --> 00:24:34,239 Speaker 1: a Palo Alto garage back in nineteen thirty nine and 385 00:24:34,280 --> 00:24:38,040 Speaker 1: really set the standard for for founding a company in 386 00:24:38,080 --> 00:24:41,040 Speaker 1: Silicon Valley. There were so many companies that were founded 387 00:24:41,080 --> 00:24:44,600 Speaker 1: in garages from that point forward, some of them in 388 00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:48,240 Speaker 1: Silicon Valley, some of them in other places. So Apple Computers, 389 00:24:48,560 --> 00:24:52,640 Speaker 1: for example, founded in a garage in Palo Alto, California. 390 00:24:52,920 --> 00:24:55,840 Speaker 1: Microsoft also founded in a garage, but that time we're 391 00:24:55,880 --> 00:24:59,640 Speaker 1: talking more about Washington, not about California. Still same kind 392 00:24:59,640 --> 00:25:04,560 Speaker 1: of thing. Ing, uh, well, you got YOUWITTT. Packard that 393 00:25:04,680 --> 00:25:07,320 Speaker 1: paved the way back in ninety nine. And then Shockley 394 00:25:07,320 --> 00:25:10,840 Speaker 1: Semiconductor becoming the second company in Silicon Valley. This was 395 00:25:10,920 --> 00:25:15,520 Speaker 1: before it had even developed that name. And Shockley, always 396 00:25:15,640 --> 00:25:18,800 Speaker 1: good at recognizing strong talent, hired on some brilliant people 397 00:25:18,840 --> 00:25:22,359 Speaker 1: to join his team. And two of those people, we're 398 00:25:22,359 --> 00:25:26,159 Speaker 1: Gordon Moore and Robert Noisce who would eventually go on 399 00:25:26,320 --> 00:25:31,400 Speaker 1: to found Intel. But we're not there yet as long 400 00:25:31,440 --> 00:25:35,119 Speaker 1: as I've talked about Shockley Semiconductor, we haven't gotten to 401 00:25:35,119 --> 00:25:38,640 Speaker 1: the point where Noise and More go off to find Intel. 402 00:25:38,680 --> 00:25:41,600 Speaker 1: We actually have some more drama first with Shockley, and 403 00:25:41,600 --> 00:25:43,720 Speaker 1: then we have another company to talk about before we 404 00:25:43,760 --> 00:25:46,800 Speaker 1: even get to Intel. But first let's give some background 405 00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:50,840 Speaker 1: on both More and Noise. Gordon Moore grew up in 406 00:25:50,880 --> 00:25:53,960 Speaker 1: California and was really interested in science as a kid. 407 00:25:54,200 --> 00:25:57,400 Speaker 1: He earned his PhD and Chemistry and physics from cal Tech, 408 00:25:57,800 --> 00:26:01,040 Speaker 1: and he joined the Applied Physics labor tory at Johns 409 00:26:01,040 --> 00:26:05,080 Speaker 1: Hopkins University in Laurel, Maryland. While he was there, his 410 00:26:05,359 --> 00:26:11,440 Speaker 1: chief responsibility was working on solid rocket propellants for the U. S. Navy, 411 00:26:11,480 --> 00:26:14,240 Speaker 1: but he felt that his talents would be better suited 412 00:26:14,280 --> 00:26:16,680 Speaker 1: for the private sector and that that would be more 413 00:26:16,760 --> 00:26:20,920 Speaker 1: challenging and profitable, so he decided to relocate, moved back 414 00:26:20,920 --> 00:26:26,800 Speaker 1: to California, and he joined Shockley Semiconductor. Robert Noyce grew 415 00:26:26,880 --> 00:26:30,560 Speaker 1: up in Iowa and was interested in physics and inventing 416 00:26:30,760 --> 00:26:34,000 Speaker 1: at an early age. He earned degrees in physics at 417 00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:37,640 Speaker 1: Grinnell College and at PhD in solid state physics from 418 00:26:37,760 --> 00:26:40,680 Speaker 1: m I T. He went to work for the phil 419 00:26:40,720 --> 00:26:44,760 Speaker 1: Co Corporation before meeting William Shockley, who recruited him to 420 00:26:44,960 --> 00:26:50,359 Speaker 1: join Chockley Semiconductor. But William Shockley's management style was rough. 421 00:26:50,960 --> 00:26:55,200 Speaker 1: People did not like working for him or with him, 422 00:26:55,320 --> 00:26:59,800 Speaker 1: and several members of his engineering team started to re 423 00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:04,080 Speaker 1: vent William Shockley, and in nineteen fifty seven, just a 424 00:27:04,200 --> 00:27:07,040 Speaker 1: year after most of them had joined the company less 425 00:27:07,080 --> 00:27:10,760 Speaker 1: than a year in some cases, a group of eight engineers, 426 00:27:11,040 --> 00:27:15,520 Speaker 1: including More and Noise, tried to remove Shockley as the 427 00:27:15,600 --> 00:27:19,760 Speaker 1: head of Shockley Semiconductor. This attempt failed. They were not 428 00:27:19,880 --> 00:27:23,040 Speaker 1: able to do that, so instead all eight of them 429 00:27:23,359 --> 00:27:27,040 Speaker 1: quit the company to go and found their own company. 430 00:27:27,080 --> 00:27:34,200 Speaker 1: Shockley was absolutely livid about this. He was incredibly angry, 431 00:27:34,240 --> 00:27:37,800 Speaker 1: and he would thenceforth refer to those eight gentlemen as 432 00:27:38,160 --> 00:27:44,200 Speaker 1: the traitorous eight, because they had betrayed him by leaving 433 00:27:44,280 --> 00:27:48,879 Speaker 1: his company after he had given them all the opportunities. Now, 434 00:27:49,960 --> 00:27:56,040 Speaker 1: William Shockley's legacy is at best complicated. He made notable 435 00:27:56,119 --> 00:28:00,440 Speaker 1: contributions in science and engineering, and without those contra abutitions, 436 00:28:00,520 --> 00:28:03,119 Speaker 1: we would not have the technology we have today. We 437 00:28:03,119 --> 00:28:05,560 Speaker 1: would probably be a few years behind where we are 438 00:28:05,680 --> 00:28:10,360 Speaker 1: right now. But he was also a complicated guy who 439 00:28:10,400 --> 00:28:15,679 Speaker 1: had awful awful ideas and philosophy and ideology. So, for example, 440 00:28:15,680 --> 00:28:19,040 Speaker 1: in the nineteen sixties, Shockley began to espouse his theory 441 00:28:19,160 --> 00:28:23,359 Speaker 1: of dysgenics, which included the racist notion that people of 442 00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:27,520 Speaker 1: African descent were naturally the intellectual inferiors of people of 443 00:28:27,560 --> 00:28:35,040 Speaker 1: European stock. So he garnered a lot of criticism for 444 00:28:35,080 --> 00:28:39,200 Speaker 1: these views, which he was not shy and sharing. Uh, 445 00:28:39,240 --> 00:28:45,360 Speaker 1: And it has in many ways diminished people's opinions of 446 00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:49,360 Speaker 1: shocklely and affected how we even talk about his contributions 447 00:28:49,360 --> 00:28:55,840 Speaker 1: to engineering and science, which were considerable, but his insistence 448 00:28:56,840 --> 00:29:05,239 Speaker 1: that dysgenics was a valid worldview was undeniably terrible. So 449 00:29:05,280 --> 00:29:07,720 Speaker 1: that when I said great and terrible things, this would 450 00:29:07,720 --> 00:29:13,920 Speaker 1: definitely fall into that terrible category. And it also illustrates 451 00:29:13,960 --> 00:29:17,000 Speaker 1: how a lot of people found William Shockley difficult to 452 00:29:17,080 --> 00:29:21,880 Speaker 1: be around. The Traders eight, however, had their own goal, 453 00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:25,680 Speaker 1: which was creating their own company. Now was that company Intel? 454 00:29:26,640 --> 00:29:29,520 Speaker 1: Well you'll find out after we take a quick break 455 00:29:29,760 --> 00:29:40,360 Speaker 1: to thank our sponsor. Okay, so no, the new company 456 00:29:40,440 --> 00:29:44,240 Speaker 1: was not Intel, not yet. The new company that these 457 00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:48,840 Speaker 1: eight men founded was called Fair Child Semiconductor. Now this 458 00:29:48,920 --> 00:29:53,280 Speaker 1: was an extension of an already existing company. That company 459 00:29:53,400 --> 00:29:57,960 Speaker 1: was fair Child Camera and Instrument Corporation. So this company 460 00:29:58,040 --> 00:30:01,880 Speaker 1: that produced camera as another instrument wanted to get into 461 00:30:01,920 --> 00:30:06,960 Speaker 1: the burgeoning semiconductor and transistor business, but they didn't really 462 00:30:06,960 --> 00:30:09,360 Speaker 1: have the wherewithal to do it within the company itself. 463 00:30:09,560 --> 00:30:14,040 Speaker 1: So these eight people come up to the company and say, hey, 464 00:30:14,160 --> 00:30:19,040 Speaker 1: we just left Shockley Semiconductor. We're free to work with you. 465 00:30:19,360 --> 00:30:23,560 Speaker 1: We'd be willing to set up the fair Child Semiconductor company. 466 00:30:23,680 --> 00:30:27,240 Speaker 1: You give us the the capital to start the company, 467 00:30:27,480 --> 00:30:30,920 Speaker 1: will start producing products for fair Child. So it was 468 00:30:30,960 --> 00:30:35,320 Speaker 1: a great a great relationship. Fair Child got an enormous 469 00:30:35,400 --> 00:30:38,000 Speaker 1: jump ahead of the competition because these were some of 470 00:30:38,040 --> 00:30:42,520 Speaker 1: the leading thinkers and transistors and semiconductors of the time. 471 00:30:43,400 --> 00:30:48,000 Speaker 1: So it allowed Fairchild to get a really big head 472 00:30:48,080 --> 00:30:53,840 Speaker 1: start over other competitors. Now this podcast is not the 473 00:30:53,840 --> 00:30:56,800 Speaker 1: fair Child Semiconductor story. I've actually talked about fair Child 474 00:30:56,840 --> 00:30:59,760 Speaker 1: semi Conductor in a previous episode. But Noise and More, 475 00:30:59,760 --> 00:31:04,240 Speaker 1: who I promise are going to co found Intel before 476 00:31:04,280 --> 00:31:08,240 Speaker 1: this episode is over. They were at fair Child Semiconductor 477 00:31:08,280 --> 00:31:10,640 Speaker 1: for eleven years, so it behooves us to learn a 478 00:31:10,680 --> 00:31:14,440 Speaker 1: little bit more about what they accomplished while they were there. Now, 479 00:31:14,480 --> 00:31:17,760 Speaker 1: one of the most important contributions Noise made at fair 480 00:31:17,840 --> 00:31:22,360 Speaker 1: Child was the development of the integrated circuit. These days, 481 00:31:22,400 --> 00:31:25,040 Speaker 1: integrated circuits are common, so it could be a little 482 00:31:25,120 --> 00:31:27,920 Speaker 1: challenging to understand how important this was, how big a 483 00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:30,920 Speaker 1: deal it was at the time. But let's just use 484 00:31:30,960 --> 00:31:36,720 Speaker 1: our imaginations for a little moment now. Before Noise and 485 00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:40,840 Speaker 1: also a Texas Instruments engineer named Jack Kilby who was 486 00:31:41,160 --> 00:31:46,920 Speaker 1: independently working on the same challenge, circuits were made of independent, 487 00:31:47,200 --> 00:31:51,120 Speaker 1: discrete components that were attached to each other with wires. 488 00:31:51,120 --> 00:31:54,560 Speaker 1: So every element of a circuit was its own little, 489 00:31:54,600 --> 00:31:58,280 Speaker 1: separate do hicky that was connected by wires to other 490 00:31:58,600 --> 00:32:02,160 Speaker 1: do hicky's. In this circuit, the doo hikis dependent upon 491 00:32:02,240 --> 00:32:04,640 Speaker 1: whatever you wanted the circuit to do, whether they were 492 00:32:04,680 --> 00:32:08,280 Speaker 1: resistors or they were some form of electrical load like 493 00:32:08,840 --> 00:32:12,480 Speaker 1: a light or something else, switches, that sort of stuff. 494 00:32:13,520 --> 00:32:16,800 Speaker 1: So these were macro circuits right there. Large There are 495 00:32:17,080 --> 00:32:19,200 Speaker 1: things that you could work with with your hands if 496 00:32:19,200 --> 00:32:22,040 Speaker 1: you needed to, and if you were to look at 497 00:32:22,040 --> 00:32:25,360 Speaker 1: early circuitry, each individual component would be its own thing. 498 00:32:25,840 --> 00:32:30,080 Speaker 1: Integrated circuits, as the name suggests, is a circuit in 499 00:32:30,080 --> 00:32:33,240 Speaker 1: which all the components are integrated together on a single 500 00:32:33,320 --> 00:32:38,640 Speaker 1: wafer of semiconductor material. Now, both Noise Over at Fairchild 501 00:32:38,760 --> 00:32:43,280 Speaker 1: and kill be Over at Texas Instruments developed this idea independently, 502 00:32:43,560 --> 00:32:46,240 Speaker 1: and both of them got credit for it. The Noise 503 00:32:46,320 --> 00:32:49,560 Speaker 1: came up with a means of creating the connections between 504 00:32:49,600 --> 00:32:54,600 Speaker 1: components on a circuit using a process called the planar process. 505 00:32:54,680 --> 00:32:59,440 Speaker 1: This involves evaporating lines of conductive material directly onto the 506 00:32:59,600 --> 00:33:03,920 Speaker 1: semi conductor wafer. So this is sort of like designing 507 00:33:03,960 --> 00:33:06,840 Speaker 1: the wires the connect of different pieces together, but you 508 00:33:06,920 --> 00:33:11,120 Speaker 1: do it by evaporating this metallic material so that it 509 00:33:11,280 --> 00:33:15,200 Speaker 1: forms on the subway the semiconductor wafer in a very 510 00:33:15,240 --> 00:33:19,120 Speaker 1: specific pattern that allows the connections between the different components. 511 00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:23,720 Speaker 1: And it was a revolutionary technique at the time. As 512 00:33:23,760 --> 00:33:28,160 Speaker 1: for Gordon Moore, his most famous contribution during his time 513 00:33:28,160 --> 00:33:31,920 Speaker 1: at Fairchild is what we now call Moore's law. Now 514 00:33:31,960 --> 00:33:35,280 Speaker 1: that's not to say it was his most important contribution, 515 00:33:35,680 --> 00:33:39,560 Speaker 1: but it's the one that most folks are aware of. Now. 516 00:33:39,600 --> 00:33:41,880 Speaker 1: This comes from an observation he made in a paper 517 00:33:41,920 --> 00:33:47,000 Speaker 1: that he titled Cramming More Components onto Integrated Circuits, which 518 00:33:47,080 --> 00:33:50,640 Speaker 1: was published in the journal Electronics in nineteen sixty five. 519 00:33:51,400 --> 00:33:55,880 Speaker 1: And it's probably not what you think it is. Moore's 520 00:33:55,960 --> 00:34:00,200 Speaker 1: law tends to be slightly misconstrued from the way that 521 00:34:00,240 --> 00:34:05,080 Speaker 1: Gordon Moore presented it in this paper. The common interpretation 522 00:34:05,160 --> 00:34:09,120 Speaker 1: today is that Moore's law means that every eighteen to 523 00:34:09,200 --> 00:34:14,200 Speaker 1: twenty four months computers double in processing power. So a 524 00:34:14,200 --> 00:34:17,160 Speaker 1: computer from two years ago would be half as powerful 525 00:34:17,280 --> 00:34:20,080 Speaker 1: as the computer you can buy today, and a computer 526 00:34:20,160 --> 00:34:22,719 Speaker 1: two years from now will be twice as powerful as 527 00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:25,640 Speaker 1: the computers you buy today. Computer from four years ago 528 00:34:25,719 --> 00:34:29,760 Speaker 1: would be half as powerful as one from two years ago, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. 529 00:34:30,200 --> 00:34:34,280 Speaker 1: And so More was making an observation about the linear 530 00:34:34,360 --> 00:34:39,880 Speaker 1: relationship between time and the in this interpretation, processing power 531 00:34:40,080 --> 00:34:43,520 Speaker 1: of computers. But that's not entirely what More was actually 532 00:34:43,520 --> 00:34:47,520 Speaker 1: talking about back in nineteen six. Instead, More was observing 533 00:34:47,560 --> 00:34:51,799 Speaker 1: that as companies developed more advanced methods of designing, producing, 534 00:34:51,960 --> 00:34:58,520 Speaker 1: and mass manufacturing discrete components, namely transistors, onto integrated circuits, 535 00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:03,080 Speaker 1: it followed this linear pathway. So a company would make 536 00:35:03,120 --> 00:35:06,560 Speaker 1: a breakthrough. It would invest in the manufacturing process to 537 00:35:06,640 --> 00:35:10,520 Speaker 1: develop a transistor, or rather smaller transistor, so that you 538 00:35:10,560 --> 00:35:13,640 Speaker 1: could fit more of those transistors on a single semiconductor chip, 539 00:35:14,480 --> 00:35:17,319 Speaker 1: and then they would make money by selling this more 540 00:35:17,400 --> 00:35:21,640 Speaker 1: advanced semiconductor chip with more transistors on it, which would 541 00:35:21,680 --> 00:35:24,080 Speaker 1: give them more money to put back into research and 542 00:35:24,120 --> 00:35:29,239 Speaker 1: development and to make even smaller transistors to make more 543 00:35:29,280 --> 00:35:34,000 Speaker 1: powerful semiconductor chips and then sell those in future circuits. So, 544 00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:36,080 Speaker 1: in other words, More was pointing out that this trend 545 00:35:36,120 --> 00:35:40,000 Speaker 1: was supported by the economics of the semiconductor and integrated 546 00:35:40,040 --> 00:35:46,200 Speaker 1: circuit industries. This wasn't so much a commentary on technological progress, 547 00:35:46,320 --> 00:35:52,359 Speaker 1: but more how the market supported the ability for engineers 548 00:35:52,400 --> 00:35:56,879 Speaker 1: to research and develop and design and produce these more 549 00:35:56,920 --> 00:36:01,920 Speaker 1: powerful circuits. It's a delicate and role difference from the 550 00:36:01,920 --> 00:36:05,399 Speaker 1: way More's law tends to be communicated, but I think 551 00:36:05,400 --> 00:36:10,719 Speaker 1: it's an important distinction. There's profit to be made an innovation. 552 00:36:12,600 --> 00:36:18,239 Speaker 1: So Moreover, this classical approach of cramming more components onto 553 00:36:18,320 --> 00:36:22,960 Speaker 1: an integrated circuit would eventually become inaccurate as well. So 554 00:36:23,600 --> 00:36:28,600 Speaker 1: originally it was Gordon Moore saying here in nineteen sixty five, 555 00:36:28,920 --> 00:36:32,560 Speaker 1: we can fit twice as many transistors on a chip 556 00:36:32,800 --> 00:36:35,160 Speaker 1: as we could back in nineteen sixty three. And the 557 00:36:35,239 --> 00:36:39,480 Speaker 1: reason for that is that we have developed enough technology 558 00:36:39,880 --> 00:36:44,040 Speaker 1: due to the economic viability of these chips, to have 559 00:36:44,560 --> 00:36:47,880 Speaker 1: the size of the transistors and thus double the number 560 00:36:47,920 --> 00:36:51,960 Speaker 1: that can be on a sub semiconductor chip. Same thing 561 00:36:51,960 --> 00:36:54,680 Speaker 1: would hold true that this observation, as long as it 562 00:36:54,760 --> 00:36:57,919 Speaker 1: maintains that linear pathway, means that in two years will 563 00:36:58,040 --> 00:37:01,839 Speaker 1: fit twice as many transistors as to day. Two years more, 564 00:37:01,880 --> 00:37:04,480 Speaker 1: it will be twice as many as that, etcetera, etcetera. 565 00:37:05,600 --> 00:37:08,680 Speaker 1: That's not exactly the truth. Now we don't really see 566 00:37:08,920 --> 00:37:12,720 Speaker 1: the number of discrete components doubling every eighteen to twenty 567 00:37:12,760 --> 00:37:17,560 Speaker 1: four months. Uh. Today we're really talking about components that 568 00:37:17,560 --> 00:37:21,840 Speaker 1: are on the nanoscale. So a nanometer is one billionth 569 00:37:22,080 --> 00:37:24,279 Speaker 1: of a meter. That is a scale that is so 570 00:37:24,360 --> 00:37:28,360 Speaker 1: small you cannot view it with an optical microscope. You 571 00:37:28,400 --> 00:37:32,240 Speaker 1: would need a scanning electron microscope or something along those lines. 572 00:37:32,480 --> 00:37:35,360 Speaker 1: Optical microscopes aren't going to allow you to see things 573 00:37:35,480 --> 00:37:39,640 Speaker 1: on the nano scale. That's how tiny these components are 574 00:37:39,680 --> 00:37:45,560 Speaker 1: in microprocessors today. At that scale, quantum effects come into 575 00:37:45,560 --> 00:37:52,160 Speaker 1: play these weird quantum mechanics effects that mean your structures 576 00:37:52,239 --> 00:37:55,200 Speaker 1: may not behave the way you intended because of things 577 00:37:55,239 --> 00:37:59,560 Speaker 1: like electron tunneling. Electron tunneling is a fancy way of 578 00:37:59,600 --> 00:38:05,759 Speaker 1: saying a electrons be crazy yo. Essentially, electrons have an 579 00:38:05,840 --> 00:38:08,840 Speaker 1: area of potential where they could be at any given 580 00:38:08,840 --> 00:38:14,520 Speaker 1: moment around their respective atoms, or if they're free floating electrons, 581 00:38:14,560 --> 00:38:18,840 Speaker 1: it just means there's a zone within which the electron 582 00:38:18,960 --> 00:38:23,360 Speaker 1: might be at any point. Like it, maybe if you 583 00:38:23,400 --> 00:38:25,600 Speaker 1: were to draw a circle, you could imagine that the 584 00:38:25,640 --> 00:38:29,320 Speaker 1: electron could be anywhere within that circle at any given moment. 585 00:38:30,640 --> 00:38:35,440 Speaker 1: Transistors involve electron gates that are supposed to control the 586 00:38:35,480 --> 00:38:38,120 Speaker 1: flow of electrons. Either they allow them to pass through 587 00:38:38,239 --> 00:38:40,880 Speaker 1: or do not allow them to pass through. If the 588 00:38:40,920 --> 00:38:44,799 Speaker 1: electron gates gets so thin that this zone where an 589 00:38:44,800 --> 00:38:49,040 Speaker 1: electron can appear can sometimes be on the other side 590 00:38:49,040 --> 00:38:53,120 Speaker 1: of a closed gate, it means that sometimes the electron 591 00:38:53,360 --> 00:38:55,200 Speaker 1: is on the other side of the closed gate, even 592 00:38:55,200 --> 00:38:57,840 Speaker 1: though it didn't have to go through the gate itself. 593 00:38:57,880 --> 00:39:00,879 Speaker 1: It's as if the electron has tunneled through the gate. 594 00:39:01,640 --> 00:39:05,360 Speaker 1: This is a non trivial problem when you're talking about 595 00:39:05,440 --> 00:39:09,600 Speaker 1: transistors that have to govern the movement of electrons. Now 596 00:39:09,640 --> 00:39:12,799 Speaker 1: engineers have figured out ways around this using different materials 597 00:39:12,800 --> 00:39:16,360 Speaker 1: and different architectures. But it does mean that we're rapidly 598 00:39:16,400 --> 00:39:20,759 Speaker 1: approaching a point where we can't just make stuff smaller. 599 00:39:21,360 --> 00:39:25,600 Speaker 1: We're getting to a fundamental limit of how small these 600 00:39:25,640 --> 00:39:29,399 Speaker 1: components can be while still running on the basics of 601 00:39:30,120 --> 00:39:34,000 Speaker 1: computer logic and electricity the way we have been running 602 00:39:34,040 --> 00:39:37,719 Speaker 1: them in the past. Uh. However, it does mean that 603 00:39:37,760 --> 00:39:41,200 Speaker 1: we don't really talk about cramming more components onto a chip. Necessarily, 604 00:39:41,239 --> 00:39:45,120 Speaker 1: we talk about what it's output is. Can it put 605 00:39:45,200 --> 00:39:48,719 Speaker 1: out twice as much processing power as the ones that 606 00:39:48,800 --> 00:39:52,960 Speaker 1: came eighteen months or twenty four months ago. That's kind 607 00:39:52,960 --> 00:39:56,080 Speaker 1: of how we frame More's law these days. By the way, 608 00:39:56,160 --> 00:40:00,400 Speaker 1: you might wonder, if Moore's law is true and computers 609 00:40:00,400 --> 00:40:03,759 Speaker 1: are getting twice as fast every couple of years, why 610 00:40:03,840 --> 00:40:05,520 Speaker 1: is it that my computer has never seemed to get 611 00:40:05,560 --> 00:40:07,719 Speaker 1: twice as fast. Well, the problem with that is that 612 00:40:07,800 --> 00:40:11,759 Speaker 1: you have software bloat that often goes along with these 613 00:40:11,840 --> 00:40:15,200 Speaker 1: improvements in hardware. So if your software is demanding more 614 00:40:15,239 --> 00:40:20,359 Speaker 1: and more resources from a computer as it gets more advanced, 615 00:40:20,600 --> 00:40:23,680 Speaker 1: as you know, new types of software come out, then 616 00:40:23,840 --> 00:40:26,160 Speaker 1: all you're really doing is just trying to stay ahead 617 00:40:26,200 --> 00:40:29,280 Speaker 1: of the software bloat with more powerful hardware, the software 618 00:40:29,280 --> 00:40:32,320 Speaker 1: just takes more advantage of the hardware that's there, because 619 00:40:32,400 --> 00:40:36,160 Speaker 1: the software two years from now is gonna require more 620 00:40:36,200 --> 00:40:40,040 Speaker 1: assets than the software from today. So it's just constantly 621 00:40:40,080 --> 00:40:43,560 Speaker 1: treading water. You never really get to a point where 622 00:40:43,800 --> 00:40:48,200 Speaker 1: the computer really feels twice as fast as your old computer, uh, 623 00:40:48,840 --> 00:40:51,800 Speaker 1: unless you're just running legacy software, in which case you 624 00:40:51,880 --> 00:40:56,720 Speaker 1: might say, wow, this is wicked fast, all right. Noise 625 00:40:56,880 --> 00:41:00,880 Speaker 1: and More both did very well at fair Child. Robert 626 00:41:00,920 --> 00:41:04,359 Speaker 1: Noyce became the general manager of fair Child Semiconductor. Gordon 627 00:41:04,440 --> 00:41:07,479 Speaker 1: Moore was the head of research and development. But while 628 00:41:07,560 --> 00:41:11,279 Speaker 1: they and the six others whom Shockley named traders were 629 00:41:11,280 --> 00:41:14,759 Speaker 1: the ones to found the company, they didn't really control 630 00:41:14,920 --> 00:41:18,120 Speaker 1: the company. It still fell under the umbrella of the 631 00:41:18,200 --> 00:41:22,400 Speaker 1: parent company, fair Child Camera and Instrument, which meant that 632 00:41:22,480 --> 00:41:24,480 Speaker 1: Noise and More and all the others still had to 633 00:41:24,480 --> 00:41:27,080 Speaker 1: answer to other people, people who didn't all have the 634 00:41:27,080 --> 00:41:30,800 Speaker 1: same priorities that they did. So one big sticking point 635 00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:33,960 Speaker 1: was that fair Child Camera and Instrument was taking some 636 00:41:34,080 --> 00:41:38,840 Speaker 1: of the profits from fair Child Semiconductor and using them 637 00:41:38,880 --> 00:41:42,520 Speaker 1: in areas outside the semiconductor industry. They were investing them 638 00:41:42,520 --> 00:41:45,600 Speaker 1: in other parts of the company. So to Noise and More, 639 00:41:45,640 --> 00:41:48,680 Speaker 1: it felt like fair Child Camera and Instrument was siphoning 640 00:41:48,719 --> 00:41:51,439 Speaker 1: away some of the profits they were generating in order 641 00:41:51,440 --> 00:41:54,480 Speaker 1: to support other parts of their business, and they didn't 642 00:41:54,480 --> 00:41:58,320 Speaker 1: like that. So they felt the money should have remained 643 00:41:58,560 --> 00:42:01,720 Speaker 1: with the semiconductor industry, maybe invested back into the company 644 00:42:01,800 --> 00:42:05,640 Speaker 1: or into the employees. And they became increasingly disenchanted with 645 00:42:05,719 --> 00:42:10,120 Speaker 1: the way things were running. So in July nine, Noise 646 00:42:10,280 --> 00:42:14,360 Speaker 1: and More both tendered their resignation from fair Child semi Conductor. 647 00:42:15,239 --> 00:42:18,760 Speaker 1: So they had already left Shockley semi Conductor to found 648 00:42:18,800 --> 00:42:21,160 Speaker 1: fair Child semi Conductor. Now they were going to leave 649 00:42:21,160 --> 00:42:25,520 Speaker 1: fair Child semi Conductor to found a third company. They 650 00:42:25,600 --> 00:42:29,319 Speaker 1: each put forth a quarter of a million dollars as 651 00:42:29,360 --> 00:42:32,239 Speaker 1: an initial investment in this new company, so together they 652 00:42:32,239 --> 00:42:34,719 Speaker 1: had a half million, and they raised another two and 653 00:42:34,719 --> 00:42:38,920 Speaker 1: a half million from various investors who were primarily organized 654 00:42:38,920 --> 00:42:42,680 Speaker 1: by a businessman named Arthur Rock. And by the way, 655 00:42:42,719 --> 00:42:46,440 Speaker 1: here's another fun trivia note. Arthur Rock, the businessman who 656 00:42:47,000 --> 00:42:49,560 Speaker 1: arranged to get that two and a half million. He's 657 00:42:49,600 --> 00:42:52,480 Speaker 1: the guy who came up with the term venture capitalist. 658 00:42:52,600 --> 00:42:55,120 Speaker 1: So if you've ever heard venture capitalist, that was a 659 00:42:55,280 --> 00:43:01,160 Speaker 1: term coined by Arthur Rock, the guy who helped fund Intel. Now, 660 00:43:01,200 --> 00:43:03,960 Speaker 1: according to the founders, they presented Arthur Rock with a 661 00:43:04,000 --> 00:43:07,200 Speaker 1: business proposal that was a grand total of one pages 662 00:43:07,320 --> 00:43:11,120 Speaker 1: long and only was one page, very simple business proposal 663 00:43:11,200 --> 00:43:13,560 Speaker 1: that essentially said they wanted to form a company that 664 00:43:13,600 --> 00:43:19,040 Speaker 1: would build integrated circuits. So Rock got on board. He 665 00:43:19,400 --> 00:43:22,000 Speaker 1: managed to secure the funding from various investors. He put 666 00:43:22,040 --> 00:43:26,080 Speaker 1: in ten thousand of his own dollars into the investment pool, 667 00:43:26,560 --> 00:43:29,200 Speaker 1: and he would eventually become the first chairman of the 668 00:43:29,239 --> 00:43:31,759 Speaker 1: new company. But why are they going to call it? 669 00:43:32,200 --> 00:43:35,160 Speaker 1: So first they started thinking about potential names. They said, well, 670 00:43:35,160 --> 00:43:38,839 Speaker 1: maybe we can name it after ourselves, But then they 671 00:43:38,880 --> 00:43:42,120 Speaker 1: realized that they called it the More Noise Company, it 672 00:43:42,120 --> 00:43:46,879 Speaker 1: would sound like more Noise and somehow being the head 673 00:43:46,880 --> 00:43:53,200 Speaker 1: of the More Noise Company didn't seem terribly attractive. They 674 00:43:53,239 --> 00:43:57,759 Speaker 1: then went with the company name in M Electronics, the 675 00:43:57,800 --> 00:44:01,520 Speaker 1: initials of their last names of Noise and More. But 676 00:44:01,960 --> 00:44:05,560 Speaker 1: this didn't last very long either, and within a month 677 00:44:05,680 --> 00:44:09,600 Speaker 1: or so they were changing their minds. They decided to 678 00:44:09,640 --> 00:44:12,279 Speaker 1: go with a totally different name, and they renamed their 679 00:44:12,320 --> 00:44:17,560 Speaker 1: new company Intel, which was inspired by the phrase integrated Electronics. 680 00:44:18,040 --> 00:44:21,320 Speaker 1: So they took INT from integrated and l from Electronics 681 00:44:21,440 --> 00:44:25,480 Speaker 1: get Intel. They couldn't just adopt the name right away, however, 682 00:44:25,560 --> 00:44:29,239 Speaker 1: because there was another business called Intel Co. That had 683 00:44:29,280 --> 00:44:32,160 Speaker 1: the rights to it. So first Noise and More purchased 684 00:44:32,160 --> 00:44:34,920 Speaker 1: the rights to the name, and then they used Intel 685 00:44:35,040 --> 00:44:39,080 Speaker 1: and Intel was officially born. They located the company in 686 00:44:39,239 --> 00:44:44,759 Speaker 1: Santa Clara, California, and shortly after establishing Intel, they recruited 687 00:44:44,800 --> 00:44:48,919 Speaker 1: a guy named Andrew Grove from Fairchild Semiconductor. The three 688 00:44:48,960 --> 00:44:51,319 Speaker 1: of them would each serve as the chairman and chief 689 00:44:51,360 --> 00:44:54,400 Speaker 1: executive officer of Intel at some point over the next 690 00:44:54,440 --> 00:44:58,359 Speaker 1: three decades. A bit later, in nineteen sixty nine, they 691 00:44:58,400 --> 00:45:02,080 Speaker 1: released the company logo. The original logo had Intel and 692 00:45:02,200 --> 00:45:05,400 Speaker 1: all lower case letters. You can still see that today, 693 00:45:05,440 --> 00:45:09,000 Speaker 1: But the original logo had the E and Intel at 694 00:45:09,040 --> 00:45:11,680 Speaker 1: a lower level than the rest of the letters, so 695 00:45:11,719 --> 00:45:14,560 Speaker 1: it was dropped down. The dropped down E logo is 696 00:45:14,600 --> 00:45:18,799 Speaker 1: what they called it now. At first, Intel's concentration was 697 00:45:18,840 --> 00:45:22,560 Speaker 1: the design and production of memory chips, which included a 698 00:45:22,640 --> 00:45:26,399 Speaker 1: bipolar memory chip called the three one oh one schlot Key. 699 00:45:26,920 --> 00:45:29,640 Speaker 1: Bipolar in this case doesn't have to do with any 700 00:45:29,680 --> 00:45:34,759 Speaker 1: sort of personality issue, it's just to talk about the 701 00:45:34,800 --> 00:45:38,040 Speaker 1: specific type of memory. This helped the company gets some 702 00:45:38,120 --> 00:45:41,640 Speaker 1: attention while it developed more innovative products, and then the 703 00:45:41,680 --> 00:45:45,920 Speaker 1: company made waves by launching the first metal oxide semiconductor 704 00:45:46,000 --> 00:45:50,040 Speaker 1: for static random access memory, also known as the eleven 705 00:45:50,040 --> 00:45:52,520 Speaker 1: oh one. Now, there are lots of different types of 706 00:45:52,520 --> 00:45:58,000 Speaker 1: computer memory. There's rob memory, or read only memory RAM, 707 00:45:58,160 --> 00:46:02,120 Speaker 1: or random access memory, CAN memory, and tons more. As 708 00:46:02,160 --> 00:46:05,160 Speaker 1: the name suggests, the purpose of memory is to store 709 00:46:05,320 --> 00:46:08,359 Speaker 1: some sort of information so that the computer might refer 710 00:46:08,480 --> 00:46:12,520 Speaker 1: to it for any given application. Storing information and computer 711 00:46:12,560 --> 00:46:16,600 Speaker 1: memory simplifies things, speeds it up considerably because the computer 712 00:46:16,680 --> 00:46:19,759 Speaker 1: doesn't have to reference some other form of storage each 713 00:46:19,800 --> 00:46:23,920 Speaker 1: time it needs to reference a particular piece of information. Instead, 714 00:46:24,200 --> 00:46:26,480 Speaker 1: it stores that information and computer memory so it can 715 00:46:26,560 --> 00:46:29,040 Speaker 1: reference it very quickly. And I've talked a lot about 716 00:46:29,080 --> 00:46:31,120 Speaker 1: computer memory on this show, and I'm sure most of 717 00:46:31,120 --> 00:46:33,600 Speaker 1: you now have at least some understanding of it. But 718 00:46:33,640 --> 00:46:36,080 Speaker 1: I always like to take these opportunities to at least 719 00:46:36,120 --> 00:46:39,399 Speaker 1: take a kind of big picture view of the technology. 720 00:46:39,960 --> 00:46:44,480 Speaker 1: So think of RAM computer memory like a big spreadsheet table, 721 00:46:44,560 --> 00:46:47,680 Speaker 1: because essentially that's what it is. The columns of the 722 00:46:47,719 --> 00:46:51,200 Speaker 1: spreadsheet we would call bitlines, and the rows in the 723 00:46:51,239 --> 00:46:55,040 Speaker 1: spreadsheet are called word lines. The intersection of bit lines 724 00:46:55,080 --> 00:46:58,080 Speaker 1: and word lines is the address of a memory cell, 725 00:46:58,680 --> 00:47:03,080 Speaker 1: and computers can access information stored in RAM using this 726 00:47:03,239 --> 00:47:06,479 Speaker 1: general address. Right they know the address of the memory cell, 727 00:47:06,760 --> 00:47:09,920 Speaker 1: they can pull the information out of that cell right away. 728 00:47:10,520 --> 00:47:13,959 Speaker 1: This is really useful and it's pretty fast. This differentiates 729 00:47:14,040 --> 00:47:18,520 Speaker 1: RAM from sequential memory. Sequential memory, as it sounds, is 730 00:47:18,600 --> 00:47:23,480 Speaker 1: stored in sequence. This would be like a tape, videotape 731 00:47:23,560 --> 00:47:27,480 Speaker 1: or a cassette tape where you have to actually go 732 00:47:27,640 --> 00:47:31,440 Speaker 1: at the beginning of the piece of data and move down, 733 00:47:31,920 --> 00:47:33,960 Speaker 1: go all the way through the data to find the 734 00:47:34,120 --> 00:47:37,560 Speaker 1: section that you need in order to retrieve it. It's 735 00:47:37,640 --> 00:47:41,200 Speaker 1: much more time consuming. If you want an analogy, imagine 736 00:47:41,200 --> 00:47:44,640 Speaker 1: that you have an enormous book with tons of information 737 00:47:44,680 --> 00:47:47,360 Speaker 1: written down in it, but it has no table contents, 738 00:47:47,640 --> 00:47:50,440 Speaker 1: There are no page numbers, there are no chapter headings, 739 00:47:50,800 --> 00:47:52,959 Speaker 1: So if you wanted to find something specific in the book, 740 00:47:53,000 --> 00:47:55,560 Speaker 1: you would have to essentially start at the beginning and 741 00:47:55,600 --> 00:47:58,319 Speaker 1: start skimming through line by line to try and find 742 00:47:58,320 --> 00:48:01,920 Speaker 1: the information you wanted. But if you had a similar 743 00:48:02,000 --> 00:48:06,000 Speaker 1: book that was organized in chapters with page numbers, section numbers, 744 00:48:06,040 --> 00:48:08,160 Speaker 1: that sort of thing, and it has an amazing index, 745 00:48:08,600 --> 00:48:10,359 Speaker 1: you would be able to find what you were looking 746 00:48:10,400 --> 00:48:14,319 Speaker 1: for pretty quickly. That's what RAM does with computers. And 747 00:48:14,360 --> 00:48:16,160 Speaker 1: I might do a full episode to talk about the 748 00:48:16,200 --> 00:48:19,279 Speaker 1: actual science and technology behind memory, but that would take 749 00:48:19,400 --> 00:48:21,319 Speaker 1: up so much time. Now. For now, we're just gonna 750 00:48:21,360 --> 00:48:24,359 Speaker 1: skip over it and just say Intel's first products were 751 00:48:24,400 --> 00:48:28,440 Speaker 1: memory chips. But were they successful or find out about that. 752 00:48:29,080 --> 00:48:31,759 Speaker 1: We'll have to come back after a quick break to 753 00:48:31,880 --> 00:48:43,440 Speaker 1: thank our sponsor. Kind of successful. The eleven O one 754 00:48:43,480 --> 00:48:46,800 Speaker 1: met with limited success, and that was largely because the approach, 755 00:48:46,800 --> 00:48:49,960 Speaker 1: while it was innovative, was a little limited. In that 756 00:48:50,239 --> 00:48:55,279 Speaker 1: first memory chip. In Intel launched the eleven O three, 757 00:48:55,400 --> 00:48:59,160 Speaker 1: which was a dynamic RAM chip or d RAM chip, 758 00:48:59,560 --> 00:49:02,600 Speaker 1: with one kill a byte of memory, though some records 759 00:49:02,600 --> 00:49:04,640 Speaker 1: say it was one kill a bit, which is actually 760 00:49:04,640 --> 00:49:08,720 Speaker 1: a pretty big difference. Remember a bite is eight bits 761 00:49:09,120 --> 00:49:12,200 Speaker 1: of information, and a bit is your basic unit of information. 762 00:49:12,280 --> 00:49:16,040 Speaker 1: It's either a zero or a one. This was a 763 00:49:16,120 --> 00:49:20,000 Speaker 1: much more useful chip than the somewhat limited eleven oh one, 764 00:49:20,080 --> 00:49:22,600 Speaker 1: and it became a successful product for the company. One 765 00:49:22,600 --> 00:49:25,920 Speaker 1: of their first big customers for the eleven oh three 766 00:49:26,280 --> 00:49:32,480 Speaker 1: was Honeywell Incorporated. Honeywell is another huge name in computers. 767 00:49:32,840 --> 00:49:35,080 Speaker 1: I'll need to do a full episode about Honeywell in 768 00:49:35,120 --> 00:49:40,160 Speaker 1: the future. The company shows Intel's chips to replace the 769 00:49:40,280 --> 00:49:43,600 Speaker 1: core memory technology in Honeywell computer. So this was an 770 00:49:43,760 --> 00:49:48,560 Speaker 1: enormous win for Intel. That same year, Intel purchased twenty 771 00:49:48,600 --> 00:49:51,920 Speaker 1: six acres of land on the corner of Coffin Road 772 00:49:52,440 --> 00:49:55,880 Speaker 1: and Central Expressway in Santa Clara. It had been a 773 00:49:56,000 --> 00:49:59,480 Speaker 1: peach orchard. So just think if they had gone with 774 00:49:59,560 --> 00:50:02,600 Speaker 1: that land and first, if Intel had bought that land 775 00:50:02,640 --> 00:50:06,320 Speaker 1: as its first action, maybe they would have not named 776 00:50:06,320 --> 00:50:09,160 Speaker 1: themselves Intel. Maybe they would have given themselves some sort 777 00:50:09,200 --> 00:50:13,320 Speaker 1: of peach name because they bought a peach orchard. Maybe 778 00:50:13,360 --> 00:50:15,920 Speaker 1: we would have ended up with peach chips and apple 779 00:50:16,000 --> 00:50:20,160 Speaker 1: products further down the line, which would make a delicious 780 00:50:20,200 --> 00:50:29,720 Speaker 1: cobbler Cobbler. The company's innovations in memory would eventually become 781 00:50:29,960 --> 00:50:33,000 Speaker 1: the industry standard, which, as you can imagine, was great 782 00:50:33,080 --> 00:50:36,799 Speaker 1: news for Intel. But the innovation didn't stop there. Now 783 00:50:36,800 --> 00:50:40,359 Speaker 1: we're going to end this episode in nineteen seventy one, 784 00:50:40,640 --> 00:50:42,840 Speaker 1: which was just a couple of years after the company 785 00:50:42,920 --> 00:50:45,840 Speaker 1: was founded. But that's because there were some really big 786 00:50:45,960 --> 00:50:50,920 Speaker 1: things that happened in nineteen seventy one. First, Intel introduced 787 00:50:50,960 --> 00:50:55,920 Speaker 1: a new technology that year called eraseable programmable read only 788 00:50:56,000 --> 00:51:00,120 Speaker 1: memory or e PROM or sometimes just i RAM memory. 789 00:51:00,760 --> 00:51:04,040 Speaker 1: This chip had an incredibly useful feature. It could retain 790 00:51:04,320 --> 00:51:08,719 Speaker 1: information in computer memory even after you switched off the 791 00:51:08,719 --> 00:51:13,160 Speaker 1: computer's power. So typically a power cycle will wipe out 792 00:51:13,200 --> 00:51:17,440 Speaker 1: computer memory because once you remove power, nothing is going 793 00:51:17,480 --> 00:51:20,960 Speaker 1: to the memory. It cannot maintain its state and it 794 00:51:21,000 --> 00:51:24,120 Speaker 1: returns to a base state, So anything that was stored 795 00:51:24,160 --> 00:51:27,600 Speaker 1: in memory is essentially wiped out. The information that you 796 00:51:27,640 --> 00:51:31,440 Speaker 1: have stored on the hard drive or whatever other media 797 00:51:31,480 --> 00:51:34,279 Speaker 1: you're using is still there, but the stuff that was 798 00:51:34,280 --> 00:51:38,440 Speaker 1: in this volatile computer memory is gone. E PROM was 799 00:51:38,480 --> 00:51:42,520 Speaker 1: a type of non volatile computer memory, meaning that when 800 00:51:42,560 --> 00:51:45,680 Speaker 1: you had power cut off, it would maintain the state 801 00:51:46,000 --> 00:51:49,560 Speaker 1: that it was in before power was removed, thus it 802 00:51:49,560 --> 00:51:55,279 Speaker 1: would remain within computer memory. This particular Intel product was 803 00:51:55,320 --> 00:51:58,920 Speaker 1: called the seventeen O two Because Intel had a habit 804 00:51:58,920 --> 00:52:02,080 Speaker 1: of numbering products, which made it a little less sexy 805 00:52:02,200 --> 00:52:06,120 Speaker 1: than other company products, but at least you can figure 806 00:52:06,120 --> 00:52:08,880 Speaker 1: out what each thing did based upon the numbering system 807 00:52:08,920 --> 00:52:12,880 Speaker 1: that Intel used. Also, in nineteen seventy one, the company 808 00:52:12,880 --> 00:52:15,680 Speaker 1: would make another big step. They would go public. They 809 00:52:15,680 --> 00:52:19,200 Speaker 1: would hold an initial public offering. So from its founding 810 00:52:19,200 --> 00:52:21,719 Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty eight through to nineteen seventy one, it 811 00:52:21,760 --> 00:52:24,839 Speaker 1: was a private company. It was supporting itself mainly through 812 00:52:24,920 --> 00:52:29,040 Speaker 1: sales and through more rounds of venture capital. But eventually 813 00:52:29,120 --> 00:52:32,680 Speaker 1: they were making enough of a success to go public. 814 00:52:32,800 --> 00:52:35,719 Speaker 1: It was only three years in so they held an 815 00:52:35,719 --> 00:52:38,680 Speaker 1: I p O and stocks were priced at twenty three 816 00:52:38,719 --> 00:52:42,480 Speaker 1: dollars and fifty cents per share, and the company raised 817 00:52:42,480 --> 00:52:46,279 Speaker 1: six and six point eight million dollars. Now, compared to 818 00:52:46,320 --> 00:52:50,319 Speaker 1: some modern day electronics companies and tech companies, six point 819 00:52:50,400 --> 00:52:54,200 Speaker 1: eight million dollars seems laughable, right you think of Intel, 820 00:52:54,239 --> 00:52:57,640 Speaker 1: It's this enormous company and it got start with an 821 00:52:57,680 --> 00:53:00,680 Speaker 1: I p O that only raised six point eight million. 822 00:53:01,640 --> 00:53:03,919 Speaker 1: When you see i p o s today for other 823 00:53:04,000 --> 00:53:07,840 Speaker 1: companies in the dozens and dozens or hundreds of millions 824 00:53:07,840 --> 00:53:10,799 Speaker 1: of dollars for evaluation, it's crazy to think about it. 825 00:53:10,880 --> 00:53:15,279 Speaker 1: But then also remember this was nine So for one thing, 826 00:53:15,280 --> 00:53:18,319 Speaker 1: we got to adjust for inflation, Well we don't. I 827 00:53:18,360 --> 00:53:22,800 Speaker 1: already did it. The adjustment for inflation would be around 828 00:53:22,840 --> 00:53:26,680 Speaker 1: forty one million dollars in today's money, so still modest 829 00:53:26,840 --> 00:53:29,719 Speaker 1: compared to some tech companies today, but it was an 830 00:53:29,800 --> 00:53:33,080 Speaker 1: enormous sum back then. Keep in mind this is before 831 00:53:33,120 --> 00:53:36,600 Speaker 1: the personal computer industry. Computers at this point are still 832 00:53:36,680 --> 00:53:41,920 Speaker 1: monstrously large things that research institutions and some big companies have, 833 00:53:42,200 --> 00:53:49,200 Speaker 1: and that's it. So it was still a pretty enormous story. 834 00:53:50,000 --> 00:53:53,160 Speaker 1: I wouldn't turn down forty one million dollars, by the way, 835 00:53:53,239 --> 00:53:56,720 Speaker 1: So if anyone wants to make a investment of forty 836 00:53:56,719 --> 00:54:01,520 Speaker 1: one million dollars in Jonathan Strickland, I'm more than willing 837 00:54:01,640 --> 00:54:07,040 Speaker 1: to enter negotiations. So just throwing that out there. Intel 838 00:54:07,080 --> 00:54:10,120 Speaker 1: employees also in nineteen seventy one got to move into 839 00:54:10,200 --> 00:54:13,440 Speaker 1: their new headquarters building, which had been constructed on that 840 00:54:13,560 --> 00:54:18,560 Speaker 1: land they had purchased earlier. They owned this building until 841 00:54:19,160 --> 00:54:21,560 Speaker 1: owned the land. They owned the building itself. They were 842 00:54:21,600 --> 00:54:25,720 Speaker 1: no longer renting out space from other companies. So nineteen 843 00:54:25,719 --> 00:54:28,160 Speaker 1: seventy one had a move in day, which is kind 844 00:54:28,160 --> 00:54:31,360 Speaker 1: of cool. And also in nineteen seventy one, that was 845 00:54:31,360 --> 00:54:34,080 Speaker 1: when Intel got into the business most people know them for, 846 00:54:34,560 --> 00:54:40,360 Speaker 1: which would be micro processors. Now, that project would actually 847 00:54:40,440 --> 00:54:42,520 Speaker 1: date all the way back to the founding of Intel 848 00:54:42,600 --> 00:54:46,959 Speaker 1: or shortly thereafter. They started the project in nineteen sixty nine. 849 00:54:47,000 --> 00:54:49,320 Speaker 1: It wasn't until nineteen seventy one that they had something 850 00:54:49,360 --> 00:54:52,040 Speaker 1: to show for it. But in nineteen sixty nine, another 851 00:54:52,080 --> 00:54:56,280 Speaker 1: company called the Nipon Calculating Machine Corporation came to Intel 852 00:54:56,800 --> 00:55:00,600 Speaker 1: and said, we want you to design twelve custom chips 853 00:55:00,760 --> 00:55:04,360 Speaker 1: for our printing calculator, which would be the boozy Com 854 00:55:04,400 --> 00:55:08,040 Speaker 1: one for one PF or Busy Calm, probably because it's 855 00:55:08,080 --> 00:55:12,000 Speaker 1: spelled like business, but it's busy Calm, not boozy com. 856 00:55:12,040 --> 00:55:14,719 Speaker 1: But I'm sure after using a printing calculator that was 857 00:55:14,760 --> 00:55:17,200 Speaker 1: one of the earliest ones ever made, you'd probably wanted 858 00:55:17,280 --> 00:55:23,440 Speaker 1: to be a boozy Com I'm guessing anyway, until engineers 859 00:55:23,800 --> 00:55:26,480 Speaker 1: took a look at this proposal and they countered, they said, 860 00:55:26,680 --> 00:55:30,240 Speaker 1: we could actually make what you want, but with four 861 00:55:30,320 --> 00:55:35,240 Speaker 1: custom chips instead of twelve. One of those custom chips 862 00:55:35,400 --> 00:55:39,319 Speaker 1: would be memory. One of them would be read only memory. 863 00:55:39,360 --> 00:55:41,759 Speaker 1: That sort of thing, but one of them would be 864 00:55:41,840 --> 00:55:45,440 Speaker 1: a programmable chip that could be used for all sorts 865 00:55:45,440 --> 00:55:49,160 Speaker 1: of different stuff, and Nipon agreed to this. Well, this 866 00:55:49,239 --> 00:55:52,120 Speaker 1: was an innovative idea to have this programmable chip as 867 00:55:52,120 --> 00:55:56,080 Speaker 1: opposed to something that was made from the beginning for 868 00:55:56,200 --> 00:56:00,439 Speaker 1: a very specific application. To have a programmable chip would 869 00:56:00,520 --> 00:56:05,960 Speaker 1: open up incredible opportunities further down the line, probably beyond 870 00:56:06,120 --> 00:56:12,160 Speaker 1: what Intel had anticipated. So through this project, Intel was 871 00:56:12,200 --> 00:56:15,279 Speaker 1: able to create the four zero zero four chip. This 872 00:56:15,440 --> 00:56:19,759 Speaker 1: was a central processing unit or CPU. Intel purchased the 873 00:56:19,840 --> 00:56:23,719 Speaker 1: rights from Nipon to market this chip separately from those 874 00:56:23,760 --> 00:56:27,560 Speaker 1: calculating machines, because if they hadn't, then Nipon would have 875 00:56:27,560 --> 00:56:31,680 Speaker 1: had the exclusivity to that technology for their calculating machines, 876 00:56:32,040 --> 00:56:36,120 Speaker 1: and then Intel would have missed out on a tremendous opportunity. 877 00:56:36,160 --> 00:56:38,680 Speaker 1: So they purchased the rights and the four zero zero 878 00:56:38,680 --> 00:56:44,080 Speaker 1: four processor was born. Electronic News heralded this event with 879 00:56:44,160 --> 00:56:49,600 Speaker 1: a headline that read, announcing a new era in integrated electronics, 880 00:56:49,600 --> 00:56:53,720 Speaker 1: and that's exactly what it was. The ability to create 881 00:56:53,760 --> 00:57:01,520 Speaker 1: a programmable central processing unit was a non trivial contribution 882 00:57:01,880 --> 00:57:05,080 Speaker 1: to the advancement of electronics. And computer science,