Historical Marker · No. 1000
First Commercially Practicable Integrated Circuit
Palo Alto, Santa Clara County · California
Erected by the State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with Intel Corporation, 1991
The qualifier on the bronze, "commercially practicable," matters. Jack Kilby had built an integrated circuit at Texas Instruments in 1958, and the two companies fought over the patents for years before both men came to be credited as co-inventors. The 2009 IEEE plaque beside this one adds a name the state leaves out: Jean Hoerni, whose planar process Noyce's circuit was built on. Noyce co-founded Intel, which placed this bronze with the state in 1991, the year after he died. Kilby received the Nobel Prize in 2000.
What the plaque says
First Commercially Practicable Integrated Circuit At this site in 1959, Dr. Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation invented the first integrated circuit that could be produced commercially. Based on "planar" technology, an earlier Fairchild breakthrough, Noyce's invention consisted of a complete electronic circuit inside a small silicon chip. His innovation helped revolutionize "Silicon Valley's" semiconductor electronics industry, and brought profound change to the lives of people everywhere. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 1000 Plaque placed by the State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with Intel Corporation, August 9, 1991. IEEE Milestone in Electrical Engineering and Computing Semiconductor Planar Process and Integrated Circuit, 1959 The 1959 invention of the Planar Process by Jean A. Hoerni and the Integrated Circuit (IC) based on planar technology by Robert N. Noyce catapulted the semiconductor industry into the silicon IC era. This pair of pioneering inventions led to the present IC industry, which today supplies a wide and growing variety of advanced semiconductor products used throughout the world. May 2009 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Where it stands
37.42178, -122.10330 · Directions