1968
The founding of Intel
*** Industry Trends ***
Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore left Fairchild to establish Intel in 1968. The company was founded with the goal of replacing magnetic memory in computers with semiconductor IC memory. While von Neumann-type computers were equivalent to Turing machines that fed paper tape back and forth, punched holes into it, and read those holes, the memory equivalent to the paper tape had yet to be integrated into an IC. This was a challenging endeavor to achieve that goal using MOS IC technology. The following year, 1969, saw the release of the 256-bit MOS-SRAM (SRAM1101) [1], followed by the world's first 1Kbit DRAM (1103) [2] in 1970, and the EPROM (1702) in 1971. Each of these MOS memory products represented innovations that would determine the direction of computing memory for years to come market that followed. In particular, DRAM grew rapidly into a large market after IBM decided to adopt it as main memory. In 1970, Busicom (Japanese company) requested the development of a calculator chipset, and the company accepted the project as it aimed to become a manufacturer of computing MOS ICs. This led to the birth of the microprogrammed MPU (4004) in 1971[3]. This was also a major innovation that would grow into the enormous MPU market later. The introduction of Intel's DRAM and MPU led to 1971 later being called the first year of VLSI. Regarding DRAM, many companies entered the 4kb generation market, leading to fierce competition. Intel eventually withdrew from the business in 1985. However, since its core MPU business developed in tandem with DRAM as main memory, Intel retained significant influence over DRAM standard specifications. Furthermore, in the technological transition between semiconductor process generations required to sustain Moore's Law, Intel has consistently played a leading role.
【References】
- Semiconductor History Museum of Japan, Integrated Circuits, "1970s: SRAM evolution"
https://www.shmj.or.jp/english/pdf/ic/exhibi724E.pdf - Semiconductor History Museum of Japan, Integrated Circuits, "1970: 1-Kbit DRAM"
https://www.shmj.or.jp/english/pdf/ic/exhibi738E.pdf - Semiconductor History Museum of Japan, Integrated Circuits, "1971: 4-bit microprocessor"
https://www.shmj.or.jp/english/pdf/ic/exhibi725E.pdf
Ver.001: 2026/2/1