标题: Intel’s Founders [打印本页] 作者: choi 时间: 7-19-2014 09:55 标题: Intel’s Founders Stewart Pinkerton, Made in America; A born leader, an ethereal genius and a tough taskmaster built the most important company on the planet. Wall Street Journal, July 19, 2014
online.wsj.com/articles/book-review-the-intel-trinity-by-michael-s-malone-1405718089
(book review on Michael S Malone, The Intel Trinity; How Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove built the world's most important company. Harper, 2014)
Excerpt in the window of print: Working at Intel was like watching a dysfunctional family sit down to Thanksgiving dinner—every day.
Note:
(a) “Andy Grove, born in Hungary and raised under both Nazi and Soviet occupations, is the brilliant but paranoid Son.”
Andrew Grove
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Grove
(1936- ; born András István Gróf; section 1 Early life and education; In 2000 [age 64], he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease)
(b) “In 1968, Intel came out of the womb of Fairchild Semiconductor, legendary not only for its technology—it revolutionized the fabrication of transistors by making it possible to ‘print’ silicon wafers much like large sheets of postage stamps—but also for its frat-house after-hours culture. Noyce, who had been CEO [of Fairchild], and his close friend Mr Moore, a solid-state physicist who headed up R&D, had decided to strike out on their own, helped in part by $2.5 million in convertible debentures, flogged across the country by Noyce and the venture capitalist Arthur Rock.”
(i) Fairchild Semiconductor
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairchild_Semiconductor(Founded 1957 /1997; section 1 Company history; section 1.1 1950s: traitorous eight (among them Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce [when and where they went to was unclear in this Wiki page, so see(iv)]/ planar process [qv])
(ii) Fairchild Semiconductor. PBS, undated (in the “History” section of “Transistorized!”) www.pbs.org/transistor/background1/corgs/fairchild.html
(to William Bradford Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain (⅓ each) for transistor)
(A) transistor
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor
(section 1 History: 1947, the three (Shockley, Bardeen and Brattain) from AT&T's Bell Labs [in New Jersey])
(B) Now based in San Jose, Calif, Fairchild Semi was “founded in 1957 in Santa Clara, California.”
(iii) Fairchild Company History: 1950-1959. Fairchild Semiconductor, undated. www.fairchildsemi.com/about-fairchild/history/
(iv) Regarding planar process and IC.
(A) Jean Hoerni
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Hoerni
(1924-1997; born in Geneva; one of Traitorous Eight; At Fairchild Hoerni would go on to invent the planar process, which was critical in the invention of Silicon Integrated circuit by Robert Noyce. Jack Kilby from Texas Instruments is usually credited, with Noyce, with the invention of the integrated circuit, but Kilby's IC was based on Germanium, and as it turns out, Silicon ICs have numerous advantages over germanium)
(B) Integrated circuit
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_circuit
(section 2 Invention: world’s first IC by Kilby in 1958/ “Noyce also came up with his own idea of an integrated circuit half a year later than Kilby. His chip solved many practical problems that Kilby's had not. Produced at Fairchild Semiconductor, it was made of silicon, whereas Kilby's chip was made of germanium”)
(C) The Nobel Prize in Physics 2000. www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2000/
("the other half [of Nobel prize] to Jack S Kilby 'for his part in the invention of the integrated circuit'")
(v) debenture (n; Middle English debentur, from Latin [(a form of) verb of the same spelling; according to Wiktionary.com], they are due, 3d plural present passive of debēre to owe — more at DEBT) www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/debenture
(vi) flog (vt):
“1a : to beat with or as if with a rod or whip
* * *
3c : to promote aggressively : PLUG <flying around the world flogging your movies — Peter Bogdanovich>” www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/flog作者: choi 时间: 7-19-2014 09:55
(continued)
(c) “Noyce and Mr Moore toyed with several options. NM Electronics sounded established but conjured up images of a Quonset-hut headquarters next to a rail siding.”
(i) Quonset hut
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quonset_hut
(The name comes from their site of first manufacture, Quonset Point)
* A recent architecture is Arc House in East Hampton, NY, which is “a custom home designed with an arching corrugated metal roof.” Go to images.google.com to view it.
(ii) siding
(A) siding (n): “a short railroad track connected with the main track” www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/siding
(B) siding (rail)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siding_%28rail%29
(iii) I have no idea why NM conjured up those images. If NM sounds like New Mexico, that state is not associated with Quonset hut in particular.
(d) “Noyce hid from Mr Grove, who was in charge of operations, the fact that Intel had a secret skunk works developing a microprocessor * * * When Mr Grove learned what was going on, he became furious, but like the good soldier he was, he snapped to attention and helped recruit a young engineer from Fairchild to be in charge of the project, which ultimately redefined the company.”
(i)
(A) skunk works
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skunk_Works
(section 3 Term origin)
(B) work (n; plural but sing or plural in constr[uction] : a place where industrial labor is carried on : PLANT, FACTORY”
(ii) snap to (attention)
idioms.thefreedictionary.com/snap+to
(iii) The chip was Intel 4004 and the dude, Federico Faggin
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federico_Faggin
(1941- ; an Italian-born and -educated physicist, naturalized US citizen)
(e) “So while the humble, self-effacing Mr Moore, who had his own time in the CEO's chair from 1975 to 1987, played out his role as Intel's big thinker, the brilliant visionary ‘who could see into the technological future better than anyone alive,’ Mr. Grove was the kick-ass enforcer. No excuses. For anything.”
(i) play out (vt): "to perform to the end <play out a role>" www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/play out
(ii) play out something: "to continue to play a sport until the end of a particular period <She played out the rest of her career in America>" www.macmillandictionary.com/us/dictionary/american/play-out
Macmillan online has both editions of American English and British English. Both have the same definition for this phrase.
(f) “Mr Malone brings us up to the present with the CEOs who followed the Trinity: Craig Barrett, Paul Otellini and the current chief, Brian Krzanich. Messrs Barrett and Otellini could probably best be characterized as treading water during their turns in the bucket.”
(i) be treading water: "to not be advancing in any way <I think she feels that she's just treading water in that job>"
dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/british/be-treading-water
(ii) The original, and literal, meaning: