Intel Corporation is an US-American company with head office in Santa Clara, California. It manufactures microchip for computers, in particular processors.

History

Establishment

The company Intel (short form of INT'egrated EL'ectronics) was created on 18 July 1968 by Robert Noyce and Gordon moorlands. Shortly thereafter also Andy Grove pushed in addition which was active then long time with Intel as a chairman of the board (English Chief Executive Officer, CEO).

The two Intel founders already were veterans in the semiconductor business: ten years before had created it together with six other colleague Fairchild Semiconductor. The enterprise was at that time the largest semiconductor manufacturer of the world. Robert Noyce was a general manager of Fairchild Semiconductor, Gordon of moorlands directors/conductors of the research and development.

Noyce and moorlands were dissatisfied with its employer Fairchild Semiconductor. In less than one year the supervisory board of Fairchild Semiconductor had exchanged three times the chairman of the board. Noyce wrote therefore its notice. Products developed of moorlands were also actually produced ever more rarely. Electronics stood at that time at a large turn: from the and slow core memory technology the trend went to the compact and fast semiconductor technology with integrated circuits, which were manufactured into the semiconductor raw material silicon.

On the high point of their frustration moorlands and Noyce were 41 years old. The idea to a second foundation of a firm developed on one spring weekend of the yearly 1968. Noyce met moorlands before its house with the Noyce gave the crucial impulse. It wanted the photochemical procedure for the production of integrated circuits, which Metal of oxides Semiconductor MOS technology, developed by him, to the break-through to bring. MOS designates the fundamental layers in the structure of a transistor after this technology: Metal as electrically leading material, silicon oxide as electrically not leading material and silicon as semiconductors. Noyce is the inventor of this today still relevant technology for chip production. It had also large portion of the discovery of the transistor effect and the invention of the integrated circuit, to which today's electronics owes its achievement strength. As a semiconductor pioneer Gordon moorlands was convinced of the fact that at that time still prevailing magnetic core memory technology would be replaced immediately from highly integrated transistor switchings on silicon.

Largest obstacle were the costs: the most inexpensive memory element on semiconductor basis was per memory bit more as a hundred times more expensively than the traditional magnet core technology. "We were young and self-confident enough to base in order in full independence our new way to go", then Bob Noyce remembered 20 years later the decision, Intel. Briefly after the establishment of an enterprise also Andrew S. Grove, a Exilungar, which strike it to California had, pushed to the young enterprise. Grove had gone to 1963, right after conclusion of its graduation into chemistry at the University OF California into Berkeley, to Fairchild Semiconductor. As a production boss Grove became the first leading employee of the again based Intel Corporation with seat in the California Mountain View. Here the Intel founders had taken over a small, building given up by union carbide Electronics.

The start with memory chips

Intel started with a business plan, which consisted of a only one side described with the typewriter. But it contained an exact target: To develop and on the market bring main memory for computers on semiconductor basis. The very large-scale integration (Very Large Scale integration, VLSI) of transistors on silicon still was in the year 1968 in the child shoes. Immediately the MOS problems followed the management disappointments with Fairchild with Intel:

I was felsenfest convinced of it that we experience a case of pure, remember Andy Grove. In September 1968 he bet a bottle Cognac in the colleague circle, if there were a sturdy MOS transistor, whose threshold voltage would vary around less than a tenth volts up to the forthcoming harvest thanks. One knew only that the problems were to due to impurities in process engineering. And one knew also that in the rented factory water even not distilled was available. First process engineer Tom Rowe dragged distilled water in bottles here. Then he came on the idea to add the MOS process somewhat melted phosphorus as it were to the "disinfection". Thus was, more or less coincidentally, the production problem solved - Grove had lost its bet.

When enterprise started, did not insist but developed Intel with the MOS process however not alone on this technology, as the first memory module a bipolar 64-bit-Schottky-RAM. It was introduced in April 1969 under the product designation Intel 3101.

Noyce and moorlands had learned the bipolar technology of the German semiconductor pioneer walter Schottky to know, when they were together (before their commitment with Fairchild) in the Shockley Semiconductur Laboratory of the American semiconductor guru William Shockley busy. The Shockley laboratory in the California Palo Alto is considered as the first commercial semiconductor factory of the world.

Gordon of moorlands expected a break-through in the innovative MOS technology after the initial difficulties only in five years. But already three months after the conception of the first electronic memory chip after semiconductor basis and well one year after the foundation of a firm Intel followed 1101 - as static RAM - the first MOS component of the world with. During the first moon-landing of Apollo 11 in July 1969 the small Intel crew worked around the clock on the last Redesign of this chip. When product was the first MOS memory component insignificantly, but from the striking power of the MOS technology moorlands were and its crew convinces. Contrary to the bipolar technique the MOS process promised high memory volumes to realistic costs with an appropriate energy consumption, which led to an acceptable heat emission. Unwanted warmth required refrigerators. However stood to the miniaturization of microelectronics in the way.

In October 1970, in half, the first large jump succeeded to the originally estimated time forward. Intel presents under the product designation 1103 the first DRAM (dynamic random ACCESS MEMORY) - to memory module, which was based on the MOS process and which had to offer advantages of the very large-scale integration. While the bipolar process enjoyed the preference/advantage only with high-speed construction units, from now on the MOS technology developed to the preferential semiconductor finishing technique.

But this break-through was connected with a commercial shock: For our first order we obtained for instance a third of the price, which we had introduced ourselves, then remember Les Vadasz, at that time responsible for the commercial management, to the drama with the 1103-DRAM. The calculated price was not to be obtained at the market. Thus the still recent enterprise learned just as industry-typical as existence-crucial lesson: the sequential reductions of costs. Nevertheless: The first dynamic memory chip of the world achieved a small miracle. It deklassierte, not least due to its outstanding achievement and its minimum space requirement, the up to then traditional magnetic core memory to old iron. One and a half years after the introduction on the market the 1103 the usually-sold semiconductor component of the world was scarce.

As a farsighted integration strategist Gordon of moorlands had already recognized 1965 a trend, which coined/shaped later than Moore law not only the history of Intel, but the development of the entire high technology considerably.

The first EPROM, a coincidental discovery

The second baby after the lucky birth Intel 1103 DRAM was not planned. It came completely surprisingly. Its "father" and inventor DOV Frohman had, as he granted later, dreamed much and then asked: why The realized dream was mentioned a programmable memory chip, a Erasable Programmable READ Only MEMORY, in the language of electronics EPROM. Already with the conception of the first EPROM of the world on that solvently DOV Frohman a piercing success landed State Circuits Conference of the yearly 1971. It showed a film over the bit design of the EPROM memory cells. When the cells were exposed to an ultraviolet source of light, a bit left the cells after the other one, until only Intel Logo remained remaining. The last bit was just the EPROM memory - there tosender applause broke out in the conference hall. The Intel EPROM 1702 was a large success. It to center of the eighties in high numbers of items was required, not least because Intel many years the only manufacturer was, that could produce EPROM in high number of items.

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