Google features a doodle honoring the birthday of Robert Noyce, the co-founder of Intel and the co-inventor of the integrated circuit or microchip.
Noyce co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957, the company that pioneered transistor and integrated circuit manufacturing.
Jack Kilby invented the integrated circuit using germanium in 1958 and later received a Nobel Prize for his work. Noyce’s breakthrough, which replaced germanium with silicon, came a half year later, but solved some practical problems in Kilby’s design and laid the foundation for all modern computer chips.
Together with Gordon Moore and Arthur Rock Noyce co-founded the even more influential Intel corporation in 1968.
Intel was the first company to start successfully manufacturing microprocessors, which in turn made it one of the world’s preeminent technology companies.