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Intel Was a Memory Company

Zusammenfassung

Intel’s first commercial product was the 3101 SRAM (Static Random Access Memory) chip, released in 1969 — three years before the 8008 microprocessor. Intel was founded in 1968 by Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce specifically to make semiconductor memory chips, replacing the magnetic core memory then used in computers. The microprocessor was not Intel’s strategic objective; it was a customer project that became the most important product in the company’s history. Intel exited the memory business in 1985, under pressure from Japanese manufacturers, and became exclusively a microprocessor company.

The Founding Vision

Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore left Fairchild Semiconductor in July 1968 to found Intel (originally N M Electronics, quickly renamed to Intel — Integrated Electronics). Their thesis: semiconductor memory would replace magnetic core memory in computers. Core memory was slow, expensive, and difficult to manufacture at scale. Semiconductor DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) could be faster, cheaper, and made on the same silicon processes that were already scaling rapidly.

The 3101 SRAM was Intel’s first product — a 64-bit static RAM chip (64 bits = 8 bytes) that could operate at 60-nanosecond access times, faster than contemporary core memory. The 1101 SRAM (256 bits) and the 1103 DRAM (1,024 bits = 1 kilobit) followed. The 1103, released in 1970, became the world’s best-selling semiconductor device by 1972 — the first DRAM chip to displace core memory in new computer designs.

The Microprocessor as a Customer Project

The Intel 4004 (1971) — the world’s first commercially available microprocessor — was not an internal Intel product initiative. It was developed for Busicom, a Japanese calculator manufacturer that wanted a custom chip set for a programmable calculator. Intel engineer Ted Hoff proposed replacing Busicom’s proposed 12-chip design with a single general-purpose processor chip that could be programmed rather than hard-wired.

Federico Faggin designed the 4004’s silicon implementation and delivered it in 1971. Intel negotiated rights from Busicom to market the chip to other customers (paying Busicom $60,000 for the rights). The resulting microprocessor business dwarfed Intel’s memory business within years.

The Memory Exit

Through the 1970s, Intel was simultaneously a memory company and a microprocessor company. The 8080 (1974) and 8086 (1978) built the processor business; the EPROM and DRAM product lines funded it. By the early 1980s, Japanese semiconductor manufacturers (NEC, Hitachi, Fujitsu) were producing DRAM at lower cost than Intel, taking market share aggressively.

Andy Grove and Gordon Moore made the decision in 1985 to exit the memory business and focus exclusively on microprocessors. Grove described the decision-making process in his book Only the Paranoid Survive: he asked Moore, “If we got kicked out and the board brought in a new CEO, what do you think he would do?” Moore answered: “He would get us out of memories.” Grove said: “Why shouldn’t you and I walk out the door, come back in, and do it ourselves?”

Intel’s exit from memory and full commitment to microprocessors transformed it into the world’s most valuable semiconductor company within a decade.

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