Noyce

"Kilby did not have a PhD, and his theoretical foundation was not as strong as Noyce’s, but he had a thorough understanding of the basic principles of physics and electronics. He was also one of the most imaginative and creative people I have ever known, an Edison-type inventor. Edison once said: “Invention is one part inspiration and nine parts perspiration.” Besides being inspired, Kilby had perseverance and pursued his inventive ideas relentless"

"Noyce had a PhD in physics and a deep theoretical foundation, but he was outgoing, had leadership charisma, and had business vision—an entrepreneur as well as a scholar. Before joining “Fairchild,” he had served as R&D director under Shockley, the inventor of the transistor and a Nobel Prize winner. Because he disagreed with Shockley, he led eight key R&D executives to defect to Fairchild. Shockley’s company thus collapsed, and Shockley and Noyce became enemies who never spoke to each other. Noyce was quite successful at “Fairchild,” but working under others, he still felt his ambitions were unfulfilled."

"When I say Noyce had business vision, in fact he not only had vision—he was also a very shrewd businessman. In 1973, memory was in short supply (just like twenty years later), and at that time Intel was the largest memory supplier. The computer division of TI urgently needed memory, and the vice president of the computer division called me: “I hear you and Noyce are old acquaintances. Could you ask him to allocate us a bit more?” I called Noyce. He seemed very troubled and poured out to me for several minutes about the hardships suppliers face during shortages, but in the end he still agreed to consider it. I hung up thinking the chances were small—maybe there wouldn’t even be a reply. Unexpectedly, he called me the next day, sounding very relaxed: “Ah, Morris, no problem with what you said yesterday; we can do it. Of course, old friends should help each other.” Before I could thank him, he immediately continued: “But silicon raw material is also in short supply. We really need silicon raw material. I know the silicon raw materials department is also under your control. Could you ask them to allocate us a bit more?” Clearly, overnight he had already worked out with his staff how to turn this “favor” into a trade that would also benefit him."

"Moore (Gordon Moore, also one of the original eight who left Shockley for Fairchild) left “Fairchild” and founded Intel. Intel was an unprecedented success, and Noyce and Moore became extremely wealthy. In the late 1980s, with his career accomplished and his pockets full, Noyce gradually withdrew from Intel and turned to promoting cooperation within industry and relations between industry and government. Together with several industry players, he co-founded SEMATECH, an organization jointly funded by the government and semiconductor companies to conduct R&D on semiconductor manufacturing processes"

"The development of integrated circuits was faster than I had imagined when I chatted with Kilby. After the inspiration from the inventions of Kilby and Noyce, the biggest obstacle to the development of integrated circuits was manufacturing process capability. Under fierce competition among companies, advances in process capability progressed by leaps and bounds. Products I considered “unthinkable” in 1958 had become quite possible by 1962. In 1963, TI established an integrated circuit business unit and began small-scale production. By the end of 1966, when I took over as general manager of the integrated circuit business unit, business had already reached about 1.5 million U.S. dollars per month. In the early 1970s, the MOS structure was widely adopted, and integrated circuits grew even faster. By 1995, the global integrated circuit market reached 130 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 85% of the entire semiconductor market."

"Noyce wanted them to all keep internalizing the company’s goals and to provide their own motivations, just as they had during the start-up phase. If they did that, they would have the capacity to make their own decisions.133"