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Interview BIOGRAPHY I was the originator of the initial concept
realization, it had been postulated before but my design was the first actual
implementation concept model (late 1967). Two years later (April 10, 1970), Dr. Robert
Noyce called my parent's home with an invitation to come to INTEL. Upon
arrival, he asked me "So what is it you want to do?" I replied
"Place the control logic, timing, registers and Instruction decode logic
of a computer on a chip" Dr. Noyce replied that "INTEL could not
afford to invest in such a project at the moment, but if I could get along
with the director of Research and Development, Marcian Hoff, I had a job. I
became employee # 243 April 13, 1970 Computer Specialist, Research &
Development. I was not required to sign a PATENT Agreement with INTEL. At the time, INTEL was under contract with
Busicom Corporation of Japan to create a custom calculator chip set. Dr. Mashitoma Shima was Busicom's
representative in the USA; Fedderico Fagin was hired to take control of
creating the Calculator chip set. When Fedderico provided the calculator chip
set cost estimates to Dr. Marcian Hoff, I was sitting with Ted (Marcian) in
his office. He looked them over and then exclaimed "This will not work
out, the cost is much too expensive". I replied you know the
general-purpose computer-on-a -chip we have been discussing, programmed as a
calculator, may work as a cheaper implementation. Ted looked thoughtful and
then said he would go speak to Busicom about it. Ted went to the Busicom
meeting which was a speaker phone conference call between Dr. Mashitoma Shima
and Japan in Dr. Gordon Moore's Office. Ted came back from this meeting
saying "They went for it"! At that point, we set about defining the
chips. Marcian Hoff, Stanley Mazor, Mashitoma Shima and I bandied back and
forth about the instructions and layout. It was necessarily defined as a BCD
(Binary Coded Decimal) application (Calculator) so the data was 1 BCD Digit
or multiple digits. Four bits was settled upon because of this, also the
number odd pins was limited so the data bus was also four wide and
multiplexed. I attempted to get an XOR (exclusive or)
instruction included, but Shima could not and would not see it therefore it
was dumped. After several, more rounds the instruction set and registers were
defined. I went to a PDP-8I that I had been assigned
to use there at INTEL where I used the Macro-Assembler, which I then used to
defined an assembler for the 4004. I also wrote a PDP-8 machine-language
Binary-image to Hex format converter to derive a memory image of the code,
then punch out a hex format tape to give to the production people to code the
4003 ROM devices. I also teamed up with Dr. Phil Tai to
research demonstration applications for the device. We began to design a
demonstration board. During our discussion while at lunch, Dr.
Fhromman decided to rent time at Fairchild which was next door to INTEL, he
wanted to use their Electron Microscope to look under the aluminum contact
layer. To etch this silicon dioxide, a liquid
photo-resist is placed over this glass layer and allowed to cure. The mask is
then exposed to high intensity ultraviolet light to make a pattern for acid
etching. The mask is then washed with deionized water to remove the exposed
areas of the mask leaving a hole in the mask at these location(s). Etching
the silicone-dioxide through the hole prepares a hole into the silicon for
contact with the metal. The hydrochloric acid produces these holes in the
silicon dioxide where the mask has been removed so the aluminum can get down
to the silicon to make contact. Without this, electrons may be deposited
through the silicon-dioxide with an effect called migration (electrons are
easy to push (pressure from electrons behind them) and much more difficult to
pull from something they have occupied (no pressure behind them to push them
off) After the effect was investigated it was
found to be useful, of course properly done it worked much better, but you
see the Girls in Fabrication did not get any credit at all for their
goof/discovery! The EPROM was created within four weeks. The
4004 demo board was altered to use the EPROM, immediately. Dr. Hoff busied himself
designing an EPROM programmer board and a program to run the board. When I
got the first 4004 board, we were just about to move to the new building in
Santa Clara. We continued the development and proceeded to other interfaces
like RS-232, video and Sound. Dr. Hoff, invited me to his home for dinner.
The discussion there was varied, but the 4004 were brought up more than once.
The Hoff's were convinced that Society would reject the computer's entry into
their lives. I of course, was sure that at least the engineering society
would gobble it up like candy. Dr. Hoff's daughter asked me if I had a
girlfriend. They presented me with a sighed copy of "Future Shock"
which expresses societies resistance to change. When the Demo was fully working a vote was taken
to determine whether to show the device at Las Vegas, Fall Joint Computer
Conference. I voted 'aye' everyone else voted 'nay'! I exploded, I slammed my
fist on the conference table, called them all "Blithering Idiots"
then I stormed out of the room. Late in the afternoon, I approached Dr.
Noyce's Secretary, Ms. Jean Jones; I told her I wished to have a meeting with
Dr. Noyce. She checked his appointment schedule then told me that 4:30 was
open. I said I would take that appointment. At 4:30 I arrived to see Dr.
Noyce, we had a discussion concerning the 4004 and its announcement. Dr.
Noyce finally said, "all right, you can take the 4004 to Las Vegas, if
everything works out ok, you do not have a problem, if everything does not
work out, You and it can stay in Las Vegas!" I replied that I would
happily accept those terms, the rest is history. Except for the rescue of three young Mexican
ladies, during my return trip from Las Vegas.
At age 12, I entered a drawing contest, to
draw a horse's head. The horse was named Trigger, from the Roy Rogers show. I
won the contest, then was disqualified because the minimum age of a contestee
was 16! I began studying electronics at age 13,
whereupon by age 15 I was beginning to design. Since when have you been interesting in
electronics and computers? How did your childhood look like? I can remember back to when I was about 1.5
years old. I was very curious, and explorative. I was born in Illinois, but I
can only remember after we arrived in California. We lived at 357 N. 19th
Street San Jose, California. Initially I began to read at age 3, My Father
gave me a picture Bible and told me he wanted me to report on what I read to
him. I had an electric train; the neighbor had 15 electric trains in his
basement. I had exotic neighbors, the Archiletters next
door, were Spanish, they had a Granddaughter Nina, the same age as me. The
Daley's an older couple lived slightly across the street, they were very
friendly and invited me over many times. Down the street two houses was an
older Gentleman who created ceramic figures. I visited him quite often, also.
Butch, who lived across the street, was not friendly after the first two days
of our meeting at age four. I got a new red wagon for Christmas. Butch came
over and we had a good time. Butch went home, the next morning I invited
Butch to come over and play, Butch began to throw rocks at me. The next day
we had a rock fight, Butch lost; my Dad had shown me how to throw rocks the
night before, and made me practice. The Marcos family lived across the
street, next to Butch, they were friendly, and they had a Loquat tree in
their front yard. You have to taste the loquat fruit, it is ambitious! There
were five brothers in this family; two were near my age. My family, which included four Girls, and
myself, traveled every summer to the National Parks, to visit relatives. We
went to San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles and many other cities, and
states. My youngest Sister is 13 years older than I am. My oldest Sister has
Children 5 years younger than me. I began to sleep less at a young age; I did
not want to miss anything! At five I got a parakeet as a pet, the parakeet's
name was Joey. I also received two sets of books for Christmas 1955, the Book
of Knowledge, and books of Lands, and Peoples. I read all of them, several
times. When I was seven, my parents bought a
Gentleman farm in San Martin, 20 miles south of San Jose, California. On this
farm, I had room to explore as well as keep large and small pets. I had
chores, but sleeping 4 hours per night gives you extra time. When you are
infatuated with something, working does not seem like work at all but play. I
am infatuated with invention, creation, making and doing things. 3. You had to have some support. Could you
specify persons, who have helped in your education and workings? Initially these people came about in my life
after the first six months of High School. Everything before that was on my
own. I am very good at self-education. In High School, I met Mr. Earl Rice.
He was the Wood Shop instructor. He was also a Ham Radio operator. Mr. Rice
introduced me to Mr. George Keller. I knew more than basic electronic theory
when I met Mr. Rice, it was more of a place to hide when I wanted to work on
special projects at school. It was also Mr. Rice's keys I had borrowed that
allowed me into the Principles outer office, to see that Monrobot 9, which,
was the first computer I ever touched.
How did it look like at the beginning, when
you worked there? Intel began in a small building in Mountain View, California.
The address was 365 Middlefield Road, Mountain View. There were about 160
people working at INTEL in two shifts when I joined. 5. Before you started work at Intel, you
worked for IBM some time. You even have a proposal for paying for your
education. You didn't accept it, why? They demanded that I sign a contract to work
for them for five years once I completed college. At eighteen, I felt I was
too young to make such a commitment. I had also witnessed two failures of
equipment design that were caused by the laxidaistcal attitude of the
engineers there. I felt I could not work around such attitudes.
I learned to drive at age 7; I had fun
reading the manuals for the cars to figure out all the features. Most of those stories are a minor book into
themselves.
Politics, and greed. In addition, I had
previously dated a young lady who worked at INTEL, whom they were threatening
to affect me. 8. What have you done later and what are you
doing now? What are your plans for the future? I have continued to develop the Robot, and
also I do not trust the US Patent office, since I
have kept everything secret. I have not had any more problems. COMPUTER HISTORY What influence had it on the human's life in
your opinion? I think where it is not abused; the computer has had a positive
effect on people's lives. Take e-mail, it has brought not only the World but
also Families much closer. 10. Which event, do you think, was the most
important in the computer history? I think all the inventors that helped
computers develop deserve accolades. Of course, the major events, initial
Creation, Transistorization, and then Integration are the major steps for
hardware, so far.
12. How do you evaluate an invention and a
growth of the Internet? TODAY'S COMPUTER INDUSTRY In what way and how often do you use them? The computer is my file cabinet, drafting
board and communication device. I am never too far away from one. 14. How do you look at a growth of
microprocessors and a race between the two giants: Intel and AMD. Do you look
at the first one with some sentiment? I interviewed at AMD before I interviewed at
INTEL; AMD did not hire me. I look upon them as Johnny come Laties. INTEL
gave me the chance to prove I was not crazy. 15. How do you think will be the future look
like, both near and far? I want to introduce my Robots and some other
inventions, some of my friends have asked me to help INTEL, get their stock
up. I would I want to change society, increase the
general knowledge. I can see us in the Stars very soon if that
change occurs, technological jumps could be reduced to 5 years or less. I see computers growing; I see communication
becoming full, with video and sound. Society has to change, become more conscious
of the environment and each other as individuals. I know more has to be done for 3rd World
countries, I look to the Robots to help there a tremendous amount. I hope to be in shape to visit the moon and
maybe Mars, before I die. |