Noyce, Robert Norton [key], 1927–90, American engineer, inventor, and entrepeneur, b. Burlington, Iowa.; grad. Grinnell College (B.A., 1949), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ph.D., 1953). Early in his career he worked with William Shockley on specialized versions of the transistor. In 1957 Noyce and several other engineers founded Fairchild Semiconductor, where in 1959 he developed the integrated circuit (a feat duplicated independently a few months earlier by Jack Kilby). In 1968 he and Fairchild colleague Gordon Moore were among the cofounders of Intel Corp.; Noyce became president and chief executive officer. There he was instrumental in the development of the first microprocessor (1971) and various computer chips. Noyce was one of Silicon Valley's earliest multimillionaires.
See L. Berlin, The Man behind the Microchip (2005).
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