Irregular readers of this blog may think Gordon Moore invented the microchip.
He didn't. Moore did have a major role. He was part of the Fairchild team, co-founder of Intel, and his Moore's Law article popularized the changes that chips would bring.
But Jack Kilby won the Nobel Prize for the microchip, in 2000. He died today.
The original invention, designing multiple devices on a single piece of substrate, was invented in two places at once. One team, which Kilby headed, worked at Texas Instruments. The other team, with Moore, Robert Noyce, and other key men, worked at Fairchild Semiconductor.
The resulting patent was shared, but it was Kilby's team that created the basic technology. The key contribution from the Noyce team involved manufacturing process.
More on Kilby after the break.
There's one important point to make about Jack Kilby's obituary.
Jack Kilby died of cancer.
The cause of his death should be a valuable reminder of the dark side of semiconductor production.
The fact is that semiconductor manufacturing represents one of the dirtiest manufacturing processes we have. All sorts of caustic, cancer-causing chemicals are used. The main reason most semiconductor production moved offshore was that California tried to impose its environmental policies on the industry, and it was cheaper to just go somewhere else and ignore it.
We can no longer ignore the byproducts of chip production. All sorts of environments, in all sorts of places, are being damaged. Kilby's cause of death has probably been multiplied a milliion-fold, around the world. And many of those victims have not even been diagnosed yet.
It's time for the industry to come clean.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for over 25 years and has covered the online world professionally since 1985. He founded the "Interactive Age Daily" for CMP Media, and has written for the Chicago Tribune, Advertising Age, and dozens of other publications over the years.
1. Anon E Mous on June 22, 2005 02:19 AM writes...
It's only jerks like you that would use such a tragic event as a springboard into a lecture on environmentalism. You should be ashamed of yourself.
Permalink to Comment2. Jesse Kopelman on June 22, 2005 01:29 PM writes...
How is it a tragedy when someone dies of fairly natural causes at 81 years old? I'm sure he will be missed, but a normal death after a long a fruitful life is not a tragedy. If Dana's comments about the environmental problems of the semiconductor industry had been made at the man's eulogy, I could see cause for offense -- but on his blog!?
Permalink to Comment3. Anon E Mous on June 23, 2005 12:36 AM writes...
An event is not solely considered a tragedy by it's scale or by it's unexpectedness/untimliness but by the point of reference we take. For many people this news is just a footnote, for some in the industry it's a sad day, for close friends and family it is tragic. Cancer is not like a heart attack that may sometimes strike instantly. It usually involves some time where the person knows they have it before they recover or die. This can be a few days or a few years. This is a very difficult time for the person and their family in addition to the loss.
The fact that Kilby was 81 is what bothered me the most about this guy making his statement. It's not like 81 is an unreasonable age to die at. To make any type of connection, no matter how thinly vieled, between his death and the silicon industry is absurd and in poor taste.
That I found this page by doing a search for news is even funnier.
Had Kilby spent years around ic manufacturing facilities and died at an early age as a result this posting would have been in bad taste rather than offensive.
Permalink to Comment4. Richard Bennett on June 24, 2005 05:09 PM writes...
I'm not able to find anything about what sort of cancer Kilby had. If it was prostate, that's very common among men (more common than breast cancer among women.) If it was lung cancer and he smoked, no big deal.
Why assume it was chip-manufacturing-related without evidence?
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