The above series of videos were captured at the IEEE-CNSV October 1st panel, Intel’s Transition to Success: From Memory to the Microprocessor, featuring former Intel legends, Ted Hoff and Dave House and moderated by Alan Weissberger. Weissberger provides an overview of the evening in this post on the IT History Society website. For the description of the panel, click here. […]
Alan Weissberger introduces panelists and Silicon Valley legends, Ted Hoff and Dave House. As Weissberger points out, Hoff and House were instrumental players in helping build the foundation in the 1970s and 1980s for Intel to become an enduring brand and a symbol of Silicon Valley. In the videos that follow, Hoff and House share […]
Weissberger introduces the 1103 and (predecessor) 1102 1K DRAMs and its huge importance to Intel’s success as a semiconductor memory company. It was a watershed event for the company, as Intel went on to be the leader in 1K DRAMs. Dave House describes how Honeywell and Intel co-operated on the 1K DRAM development and how he worked with […]
Ted Hoff describes how he contributed to the improved 1103 circuit design and how its design differed from logic circuits. Technical details of the re-design are explained. Dave House then relates his experiences as an Intel 1K DRAM customer at Micro Data (he was the CPU designer of their 3200 minicomputer) and his first few […]
Weissberger asks the panelists, “What were some of the other memory systems applications besides core memory replacement in computers (for main memory storage) and control memories for CPUs?” Dave talks about the establishment of Intel’s Memory Systems Division and its “IBM add-on” memory business. He tells us how Intel stacked two 1103 single defect 1K […]
Ted Hoff is credited with and well -known in tech circles for the invention of the microprocessor. As Alan Weissberger points out, his contribution to telecom is somewhat unheralded in comparison. In this video, he talks about how the telecom group he led at Intel in the 1970s sparked the revolution in telecom by creating […]
Weissberger notes that Intel attempted to enter the data comm market in 1980 with Ethernet LAN chip made in Israel. They were 1 of 3 companies (XEROX and DEC were the others) that co-authored the original 10 Mb/sec Ethernet spec submitted to IEEE 802 committee. Dave says Intel had a problem with the random number […]
Weissberger refocuses the discussion around microprocessors, noting that Intel didn’t always have the best architecture. House adds “never.” But Intel took a systems approach to the microprocessor business, while their competitors didn’t. How did that come about? Dave says that Bob Noyce instilled the systems approach within Intel. “The more you put on the chip, […]
Weissberger moves on to the major transition Intel had ever faced: moving from a memory to a microprocessor company. He asked: “When did Intel realized that microprocessors were a business in itself, rather than just a tool to sell memories?” And after that, “When did Intel realize that microprocessors were the main business of the […]
Weissberger asks Ted and Dave when Intel first recognized that microprocessors could be used as the CPU for computers, rather than just for embedded controller applications (as a replacement for random logic). Ted refers to a 1970 magazine article predicting that the cost per bit of semiconductor memory would drop to 1 cent per bit. The […]