Dandelion in Silicon Valley: Fairchild once cultivated Intel, AMD and Apple.

"Fairchild Semiconductor Company is like a mature dandelion. As soon as you blow, the seeds of this entrepreneurial spirit will fly everywhere with the wind. " This is Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' evaluation of Fairchild Semiconductor in his early years.

The rebellion of eight geniuses

"rebellion! You rebels! "

1957 One day, william shockley, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, flew into a rage and scolded eight young scholars, including robert noyce and Gordon Moore. The young people looked at each other, but left the former Bole and Shockley semiconductor laboratories without hesitation. When shockley was interviewed by the media later, his anger was slightly reduced and his tone changed, calling them "the rebellion of the eight geniuses".

Shockley was very kind to these eight young scholars, including Noyce and Moore. Noyce once recalled receiving an invitation call from shockley and said, "It's like getting a call from God for you. Shockley is the most important person in the semiconductor electronics industry. Being able to help him is like joining Major League Baseball, which means that your ability has been affirmed. "

Of course, these young scholars themselves are very talented, and their joint efforts have made Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory brilliant. Shockley once called them "my doctoral production line".

Perhaps it is the so-called "share weal and woe, * * * wealth is difficult." 1956 65438+In February, after shockley won the Nobel Prize, the situation changed. Shockley once said that he felt like Churchill when he accepted the Nobel Prize. Young scholars in the laboratory thought this was a joke of shockley, but it was actually a true portrayal of shockley's heart.

On the signature of the patent, shockley once said that the patent can only be signed by one inventor, "the light bulb can only be on one person's head." But shockley always listed himself as a * * * co-inventor when his subordinates filed a major patent application.

Shockley's attitude is sometimes unbearable. For example, he once asked a young scholar, "Which school do you study in? Are you sure you really went to school? You don't understand such a simple thing? ! "

In Noyce's eyes, shockley began to become arrogant and eccentric. At that time, Noyce had a good reputation in the industry, but shockley became suspicious of his work and asked Bell Laboratories to retest the experimental data he had done, which made Jeannot feel ashamed. Noyce said, "Do you really need me here? If he can solve the question I want to answer in Jambers lab at present, am I insignificant here? "

The atmosphere in the laboratory is very depressing. Insiders later recalled that within a few months after shockley won the prize, the laboratory was like a "mental hospital". Gordon Moore once said, "When there is a small accident in the laboratory, shockley will ask us to use a lie detector to test who has lied and who is innocent." Writer David kaplun once commented that Shockley was "a genius in physics, but an idiot in management."

Dissatisfaction is brewing, and some people are secretly in series, ready to leave and start their own businesses, but Noyce, who later became the leader of this "rebel" group, was the last to join, which laid the groundwork for the next "rebellion."

The team sent a letter to an investment company, saying that "our team is experienced and versatile, and is proficient in physics, electronics, engineering, metallurgy and chemistry." And said that it will conduct business in the semiconductor field. This letter reached Sherman fairchild, the owner of fairchild Photography and Instruments Company and the largest shareholder of IBM at that time. He had a good eye and decided to invest.

On September 1957, Fairchild Semiconductor Company was established.

Fairchild Express under the Background of the Cold War

1958 65438+ 10, in the background of the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union, the United States began to build the B-70 bomber, which was called "manned missile" at that time. IBM is responsible for producing navigation computers for airplanes, but IBM lacks silicon chips for computer manufacturing. Fairchild Semiconductor got the news and asked Fairchild to persuade IBM to give them a chance.

At first, IBM engineers were suspicious of Fairchild, but they were told: "Your biggest shareholder has invested more than $654.38 billion in these young people, so you should trust them." Soon, Fairchild won the first contract from IBM, with an amount of $654.38+500,000.

Although the contract amount is not large, it comes from the blue giant! Fairchild was so popular that its business began to flourish. Noyce, who likes scientific research, initially refused to be the leader of the company, but the parent company did not arrange others to lead, and Noyce became the de facto person in charge. Under his management, the company's business has developed rapidly, and at the same time, its complete plane processing technology for manufacturing transistors has become increasingly mature.

At that time, Heini, a scientist from Fairchild, had squeezed the oxide layer on the surface of silicon to the maximum, forming a unique plane processing technology for manufacturing transistors, which made it possible to produce silicon transistors on a large scale. "If you can make a transistor like this, why can't you make dozens, hundreds or even thousands?" 1959 65438+1October 23rd, Noyce recorded all this excitedly in his diary. Subsequently, Fairchild Semiconductor's semiconductor assembly line was rapidly formed.

Everything was in good order, but then something happened that annoyed Jeannot. 1February, 959, kilby, an engineer of Texas Instruments Company, is going to apply for a patent for the invention of integrated circuits. When the news came, Noyce, who thought he was the leader of integrated circuit invention, was shocked. He thinks that kilby's method looks like making a semiconductor into a certain shape by brute force, making it produce some resistance regions, and then connecting these regions with wires, which requires a lot of manual labor and is clumsy. Noyce evaluates his technology under the guidance of "lazy thinking", and abandons the troublesome mode of connecting electronic parts with wires. Everything is simple and convenient for large-scale assembly line production.

Fairchild Semiconductor also applied for a patent in the United States Patent Office. In order to compete for the invention right of integrated circuits, the two companies began a protracted dispute. In the end, the court took a muddled approach and decided that the integrated circuit was invented at the same time. Kilby is known as "the first inventor of integrated circuits", while Noyce is known as "the person who put forward the theory of integrated circuits suitable for industrial production".

With the appearance of integrated circuits, the huge computers that used to occupy more than 170 square meters can be replaced by matchbox-sized microprocessors. In the early days of the birth of integrated circuits, the price was high and expensive. In the spring of 196 1, the market price of an integrated circuit is as high as 120 dollars, which makes ordinary users flinch. But at that time, the United States and the Soviet Union were fighting for space. President Kennedy asked NASA to send American astronauts to the moon. The computers on the Apollo spacecraft carrying astronauts used millions of integrated circuits of Fairchild Semiconductor, which brought a lot of money to the company. Subsequently, the expansion of the military market led to the expansion of the civilian market. 1964, the integrated circuit had its first civilian use: Zenith applied it to hearing AIDS.

Fairchild Semiconductor Company has achieved commercial success, while the eight-member team continues to maintain laboratory-like rigor in technology research and development, and its academic attainments remain at a high level.

1965 One day, Moore came back from the silicon workshop, returned to the office, sat down, took a ruler, drew a sketch on a piece of paper with a pen, and wrote an article based on it. This article published in Electronics magazine was later summarized as the well-known Moore's Law: under the condition of constant price, the number of transistors that an integrated circuit can accommodate will double every 18 months, and the performance will also double; In other words, the computer performance that can be bought for one dollar will more than double every 18 months.

"Come down from the Wan Ren gang, bend down and try to hold the flag." By 1967, Fairchild's turnover was close to 200 million dollars, which was brilliant at that time. Fairchild's influence in the industry is also increasing day by day. According to Dr. Yu Youcheng (who later served as the vice president of Intel Corporation), "Entering Fairchild Company means stepping into the gate of semiconductor industry in Silicon Valley."

Breed discontent and lead to a break.

"If Noyce climbs onto the boat, he will surely become the captain."

A member of the entrepreneurial group of eight once commented on Noyce as the company manager. When a member printed the employee list of the company, he put the names of seven founders except Noyce in alphabetical order at the end, suggesting that Noyce was the last person to join their "rebellious" team.

This kind of knot appeared at the beginning of the company's establishment, but it was not a big problem at first, because on the one hand, the rapid development of business performance temporarily concealed all this, on the other hand, because Noyce advocated simplicity and efficiency, he took a laissez-faire attitude towards the management of the other seven founders. And Noyce himself is relatively low-key. He has no luxurious personal office, no driver and no special parking space.

The writer Stephen Covey once said, "The only way to gain moral prestige is to show your qualities and contributions and live in a way that deserves people's trust and trust."

Doing nothing about the entrepreneurial team does not mean that the management of the company is unorganized. Under the guidance of Noyce, the company has established a strict assembly line management system. On the assembly line, female workers in uniform green nylon clothes are not allowed to stand up and go to the toilet except for two short breaks and lunch breaks. Some girls have to lie about their headaches in order to have a rest. However, these women workers think it is decent to work in Fairchild, where wages and benefits are very generous.

Semiconductor manufacturing needs not only the careful design of engineers, but also the skilled operation of workers on the assembly line. Noyce thinks that the workers on the assembly line are more important than the sophisticated equipment, so he tries to break the tangible hierarchical differences in the company. He lets the management and employees use the undifferentiated canteen. He also held coffee talks with managers and employees at the same time on weekends, trying to form a good team atmosphere. These initiatives of Noyce were also relatively advanced among American enterprises at that time.

Everything seemed perfect, but in the mid-1960s, Fairchild Semiconductor Company began to face a crisis. First of all, the booming semiconductor market makes the founding members and core backbone of Fairchild face a choice: whether to be an ordinary employee or start their own company. Many people choose the latter without hesitation, calling the former "boring" and the latter "hot blood". Barnard, a management scientist, once mentioned in the book "The Functions of Managers": "When people choose whether to participate in a specific cooperative relationship, they are based on the following two points: (1) the goals, wishes and driving forces at that time; (2) Other alternative opportunities recognized by the individual outside him. Individuals are influenced and dominated by the above two points and correct their own behaviors, while organizations are produced by corrected personal behaviors. "

Secondly, Fairchild's parent company began to get more involved in the operation of Fairchild Semiconductor Company, taking away a lot of their profits, while Noyce thought that more money should be invested in the field of electronic semiconductors, and the two sides began to have contradictions.

Finally, there is a barrier caused by some condescending arrogance of the parent company. Once, Noyce flew to his parent company to attend a meeting. It was snowing heavily, so he couldn't find a car, so he had to walk to the meeting against the snowstorm. When he arrived at the meeting place exhausted, he found no one in the meeting room. Many years later, Noyce was deeply concerned about this incident, saying that he had gone through all the difficulties, while the executives of the parent company were huddled in a warm home and refused to leave home.

1In August, 968, Noyce resigned with Moore and Grove and left Fairchild.

The three of them first visited Arthur Rock, a venture capitalist, with only a few pages of rough business plans. Roark didn't look at the plan carefully. He thought the most valuable word was "bob noyce", so he quickly promised to invest 2.5 million dollars for them.

Later, Roark recalled that he did not prepare a complicated project proposal for angel investors. He thought that Noyce's fame alone was enough, so he only sent a simple notice of only one and a half pages, and even many people enthusiastically invested money before they saw it.

Noyce, Moore and Grove founded Intel this time. At first, the company planned to be named Moore Noyce Electronics Company, but in English, Moore Noyce sounded like "more noise", so they got materials from the intelligence department and named it Intel. There is also a saying that Intel is the abbreviation of "INTegrated Elcetronics".

Dandelion is no longer beautiful after sowing seeds.

"AMD is the center of Silicon Valley. Intel and National Semiconductor Company can only stand aside, and the company supported by dead branches is in front, which naturally implies Fairchild. In the distance, Motorola and Texas Instruments are faintly visible. " In the early 1970s, at the instigation of founder Jerry Sanders, AMD launched such a controversial cartoon advertisement. Saunders has always held a grudge against fairchild.

Young Saunders once dreamed of becoming a movie star, earning a lot of money and being accompanied by beautiful women, but his crooked nose left by his early fights made this dream come to nothing. He later became a salesman and an excellent sales manager in Motorola. He was regarded as a first-class salesman by the industry, so he was soon hired by Fairchild.

Fairchild is Saunders' hero's land. He was promoted quickly and his salary was high, but he still made ends meet because he spent money like water. He said that money is a lifetime record.

When Noyce, Moore and Grove left Fairchild to start Intel, he still didn't want to leave and became Fairchild's sales director. His sales team was stable. However, Dr. Lester Hogan soon took over Fairchild, and Saunders was washed as an alien. Sanders analyzed: "When it comes to Lester Hogan's prejudice against me, I think it is mainly because I am a person who advocates breaking old rules and customs. In other words, if the king is really naked, I must be the first person to stand up and debunk the truth. "

Saunders was caught off guard by his sudden dismissal. Because of his usual extravagance, he has no savings, his two children are starving, his wife is in tears, and pain hangs over his head like a sudden cold fog. He recalled that his old friend seemed to suddenly forget him. His self-esteem was trampled on and he considered suicide.

But Sanders finally pulled himself together and prepared to raise money to set up a new company, but his reputation and luck were not as good as Noyce's. He said that when he founded Intel, Noyce always boasted that he raised $5 million in five minutes, while when he founded AMD, he only got $50,000 in five million minutes. Fate seemed cruel to him, but he gritted his teeth and persisted.

Dennis whitley, an American orator, once said, "The advantage of the winner is not natural endowment, high IQ or genius. The winner's advantage lies in attitude, not intelligence. Attitude is the standard of success. "

"If you are sincere, the stone will open." 1June 20th, 969, AMD was established.

As the saying goes, "only gratitude and hatred will not produce dust for thousands of years." With hostility towards Fairchild, Sanders hired many people who had worked at Fairchild, including those who were fired by Fairchild. He said that he would not consider their loyalty, mainly to make them not afraid, because he himself had tasted fear.

In the middle and late 1960s, a number of companies with Fairchild genes were established one after another. In addition to Noyce, who voluntarily left Fairchild to start a business, Sanders, who was fired and started a passive business. Fairchild is going from bad to worse, although it is not "dead branches and leaves" as Sanders described. Everyone is clearly aware that Fairchild is no longer a "miracle created by naughty children".

Dr Lester Hogan took over Noyce's job. In order to show Fairchild's thirst for talents, he was given the highest treatment in the history of Silicon Valley-$654.38+$00,000 plus $600,000 in stock for three years. He was in power at Fairchild Semiconductor for six years and made every effort to triple the company's sales revenue. However, Fairchild's soul has left, and Fairchild's bankruptcy is inevitable under the pressure of their new company.

1974, the exhausted Hogan handed over power to 36-year-old corrigan, who temporarily took over Fairchild. In the late 1970s, corrigan thought that the best way to save Fairchild Semiconductor Company was to sell it. Shi Lamu Berg, the last French company operating the oil service industry, bought it for $350 million. Although Fairchild has been out of public view for nearly 65,438+00 years since Noyce left, people in Silicon Valley are still crying when they learn that it was acquired by a French-funded enterprise.

After Shi Lamu Berg entered the company, Fairchild recruited a group of talents who studied artificial intelligence. They could have let Fairchild quickly enter the field of robot production, but they missed the opportunity for various reasons. After a series of losses, Fairchild resold it to the national semiconductor company at a third of the original price. Here, Fairchild Semiconductor brand once died.

Silicon valley heat source

"Half of about 70 semiconductor companies in Silicon Valley are direct or indirect descendants of Fairchild Semiconductor. Working for Fairchild Semiconductor is the way to enter the whole Silicon Valley semiconductor industry. 1969 At a conference of semiconductor engineers held in Sunnyvale, less than 24 of the 400 participants had never worked at Fairchild. " This is the writer Everett M Rogers' description of Fairchild in Silicon Valley Fever.

Noyce, the founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel, made the greatest contribution to Silicon Valley. He is known as "the father of Silicon Valley". After becoming famous, he was very supportive of some rising stars in Silicon Valley, such as enthusiastically guiding Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple. Noyce's wife, Ann Bowles, once said that her husband treated Jobs like a child, but this is not a charity. He can let Jobs in and out, or he can hide in the corner. In the late 1970s, Jobs often rode his motorcycle to Noyce's house and talked with him in the basement about the future of computers.

Subsequently, the apple heat wave spurted out.

References in this article:

Authors: Everett M Rogers and Judith K Larsen, translators: Fan, Liu Xihan, Cui Hong, Gao Tiesheng, Economic Science Press, 1985.

Leslie Berlin, The Man Behind the Microchip, Oxford University Press, 2006.

Only paranoia can survive: a training manual for special managers. Author: Andy Grove, translator: Enron and Zhang, CITIC Publishing House, 20 10.

Geeks: Innovative Genes that Change the World Author: Jiang, Science Press, 20 13

The author of this paper, Jiang, has written books such as Geek: Innovative Genes that Change the World, Jobs and His Opponents, Lei Jun: Doing the Right Thing at the Right Time, Crisis of Microsoft Dynasty, Biography of Internet Business Heroes in China, Dialogue with the New CEO, etc., and gave a lecture on offline innovation.