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Integrated Circuit Inventor Jack Kilby Dead at 81

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the thanks-for-the-ideas dept.

geekotourist writes " Jack Kilby , inventor of the integrated circuit, one winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics (Robert Noyce died in 1990), died June 20th after a brief battle with cancer. In 1958 he invented the foundation for a trillion dollar industry as a substitute for going on vacation." Update: 06/22 02:03 GMT by T : Kilby was 81, not 91 as the headline originally indicated.

7 of 197 comments (clear)

  1. Hard to believe by billdar · · Score: 3, Interesting
    "one of the few people who can look around the globe and say to himself 'I changed how the world functions.'"

    That would be surreal. It makes me wonder if he was satified in the path his technology has taken... or just pissed about royalties.

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    I am billdar, and I approve this message.
  2. He will be missed by ichbinderharlekin · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Jack Kilby was a humble man. As the guest of honor at a co-op luncheon at TI he simply thanked everyone for honoring him with a hearty round of applause and sat down.

    Just to point out an interesting tidbit about his invention of the IC, he was a new employee at TI in 1958. While everyone else was on vacation he had to find something to work on, as he had no vacation time saved up yet. (In those days TI would normally shut down most operations for maintenance and most employees would take their vacation) As much as those around him told him that his idea would never work, he used his time to prove them all wrong.

    (history is just about the only thing you actually learn in those training days when you first start a job at a company like Texas Instruments)

  3. Re:Interesting by reverseengineer · · Score: 3, Interesting
    You realize that it's only about 9:40PM now on the East Coast, right? Unless you had some east coast in mind other than the one for the U.S. That's not terribly late, you know, especially for caffeine-fueled geeks.

    To steer this comment back on topic though, I'd like to thank Mr. Kilby for his tremendous accomplishment; the modern world owes much to your work (and of course to that of Mr. Noyce as well). I was at UIUC in 2000 when Jack Kilby (BSEE '47) won his Nobel Prize, and I remember the publicity at the time. He was recognized during halftime of a football game that fall- I swear he got more cheers than the team did any time that season.

    --
    "FDA staff reviewers expressed concern about the number of patients who were left out of the study because they died."
  4. Re:The world would be different? by putko · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Just look at Noyce, who had the same idea at the same time. It seems clear the time was ripe for the idea.

    This is so often the case. The entire human race wasn't sitting still, waiting for the guy to make the transistor -- just 99.999999% of us.

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    http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_s tone_your_children/dt21_18a.html
  5. A true hacker by 5plicer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    From the substitute for going on vacation article:

    "I ... built up a circuit using discrete silicon elements. Packaged grown-junction transistors were used. Resistors were formed by cutting small bars of silicon and etching to value. Capacitors were cut from diffused silicon power transistor wafers, metallized on both sides. This unit was assembled and demonstrated to Adcock on August 28, 1958."

    This guy was a true hacker! I wish I had the opportunity to meet him. Rest in peace Jack Kilby.

    --
    The bits on the bus go on and off... on and off... on and off...
  6. Re:His name will live on... by ortholattice · · Score: 4, Interesting
    His name will forever be engraved in the J-K flip-flop.

    This is probably an urban legend. More likely it was the initials of John J. Kardash, who in the 1950's arbitrarily used his initials on these pins on his blueprints, and it stuck.

  7. No, Bob Noyce invented the IC by Laaserboy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Jack Kilby is said to have invented the integrated circuit. This is not entirely correct for three reasons.

    1) Jack Kilby simply jumpered wires around a semiconductor. At the same time and before at Fairchild, Bob Noyce produced a planar process that we use today. Subsequently, TI used Noyce's process, not Kilby's.

    2) A lawyer at TI argued for years that Jack Kilby invented the IC. Fairchild was awarded the first patent for the IC, but eventually gave up. Since the lawyer won the case despite all of the evidence against Kilby, the Nobel committee should have included the lawyer in the Nobel prize. He is partly responsible for it.

    3) If Intel (the eventual home of Noyce) were to claim that Noyce invented the IC, it would have given an expensive gift to Fairchild. Fairchild at one point could have sued Intel for all Noyce walked out with. It would create a mess. TI claimed all along that Kilby invented the IC. Corporate publicity won the day.