Robert Noyce was a risk-taker who was successful both as an engineer and as a businessmen. The son of an Iowa minister, he was informal and genuine. Even when he was running one of the most successful businesses in the Silicon Valley, he dressed informally and his office looked like everyone else's in the company. A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he started working for one of the first computer-related businesses in 1955. While working with these pioneers of computer engineering, he learned many things about computers and business management.
As an engineer, he co-invented the integrated circuit, which was the basis for later computer design. This integrated circuit was less than an eighth of an inch square but had the same power as a transistor unit that was over 15 inches square or a vacuum tube unit that was 6.5 feet square. As a businessman, Noyce co-founded Intel, one of the most successful companies in the Silicon Valley and the first company to introduce the microprocessor. The microprocessor chip became the heart of the computer, making it possible for a large computer system that once filled an entire room to be contained on a small chip that could be held in one's hand. The directors of Intel could not have anticipated the effects that the microprocessor would have on the world. It led to the invention of the personal computer and the birth of thousands of new businesses. Noyce's contributions to the development of the integrated circuit and the microprocessor earned him both wealth and fame before his death in 1990. In fact, many people consider his role to be one of the most significant in the Silicon Valley story.