
The Tinkerings of Robert Noyce (1983) - gumby
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a12149389/robert-noyce-tom-wolfe/
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klelatti
It's a great piece but the unqualified attribution of credit for the
'invention' of the microprocessor to Ted Hoff without mention of the team that
made it happen - (especially) Federico Faggin, Masatoshi Shima and Stan Mazor
- is unfortunate, but seems consistent with Intel's handling of the issue at
the time the article was written.

~~~
wombatmobile
It's a magnificent piece of writing that chronicles a fantastic voyage. How
did it come to be?

> In 1983, Esquire commissioned journalist Tom Wolfe to write a piece on
> Robert Noyce for its anniversary issue, which would profile 50 Americans who
> had a profound and positive impact on American life during Esquire’s 50
> years of existence. The magazine featured other famous writer-subject
> pairings, a piece by Kurt Vonnegut on Jackson Pollock and another by Norman
> Mailer on Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. But Wolfe’s “The Tinkerings of Robert
> Noyce” would have a unique legacy. One historian called it “perhaps the most
> celebrated piece of journalism about Silicon Valley” and maintained more
> than 30 years after its publication that “it still stands as the most famous
> description of Intel and its singular corporate culture.”

[https://newsroom.intel.com/articles/intel-50-tom-wolfes-
tink...](https://newsroom.intel.com/articles/intel-50-tom-wolfes-tinkerings-
robert-noyce/#gs.d5dmy3)

------
dang
Posted many times but not much commenting - I thought there had been a larger
thread?

2018
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17212210](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17212210)

2017 (1 comment)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14650795](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14650795)

2015 (1 comment)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10092652](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10092652)

2014
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8133479](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8133479)

The revised version "Robert Noyce and His Congregation" was also discussed,
also not very much:

2014
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8135553](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8135553)

~~~
motohagiography
How do you follow Tom Wolfe?

~~~
dang
I'm tempted to say "In a van?" but actually I don't understand your question.

~~~
motohagiography
Hah, I was thinking that the article was such an excellent piece of writing by
someone so prominent, commenting on it is like performing on stage after
Elvis.

That article really does capture the origin of a lot of tech company culture
well. Grove's books were required reading for managers at a couple of
companies I was at. The article should be part of any CS syllabus to
understand the culture that produced the tech we have today.

~~~
dang
I get it now! Indeed.

------
rwmj
Great BBC documentary about chip manufacturing from 1977:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW5Fvk8FNOQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW5Fvk8FNOQ)

Robert Noyce and Intel are featured (although IIRC Intel is never named).
Noyce appears starting around 9 mins in, followed by a detailed look around
the fab.

Was this the first and last time that Intel allowed cameras around their fabs?
I'm pretty sure it would never be permitted today.

Also the first time Noyce appears he's flipping through chip masks for the
8080!

