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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.

2 of 197 comments (clear)

  1. 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)

  2. 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.