The Intel Trinity: How Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove Built the World's Most Important Company

by Michael S. Malone

Overview

Based on unprecedented access to the corporation’s archives, The Intel Trinity is the first full history of Intel Corporation—the essential company of the digital age— told through the lives of the three most important figures in the company’s history: Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove.

Often hailed the “most important company in the world,” Intel remains, more than four decades after its inception, a defining company of the global digital economy. The legendary inventors of the microprocessor-the single most important product in the modern world-Intel today builds the tiny “engines” that power almost every intelligent electronic device on the planet.

But the true story of Intel is the human story of the trio of geniuses behind it. Michael S. Malone reveals how each brought different things to Intel, and at different times. Noyce, the most respected high tech figure of his generation, brought credibility (and money) to the company’s founding; Moore made Intel the world’s technological leader; and Grove, has relentlessly driven the company to ever-higher levels of success and competitiveness. Without any one of these figures, Intel would never have achieved its historic success; with them, Intel made possible the personal computer, Internet, telecommunications, and the personal electronics revolutions.

The Intel Trinity is not just the story of Intel’s legendary past; it also offers an analysis of the formidable challenges that lie ahead as the company struggles to maintain its dominance, its culture, and its legacy.

With eight pages of black-and-white photos.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062226785
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	04/16/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	725
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Michael S. Malone is one of the world's best-known technology writers. A veteran newspaper reporter and columnist, magazine editor, and entrepreneur, he is the author or coauthor of nearly twenty award-winning books, notably the bestselling The Virtual Corporation, Bill & Dave, and The Intel Trinity.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Artifacts ix

Part I The Fairchildren (1957-1968)

1 The Traitorous Eight 3

2 The Greatest Company That Never Was 12

3 Digital Diaspora 31

Part II Start-Up (1968-1971)

4 The Ambivalent Recuirt 43

5 Intelligent Electornics 53

6 Robert Noyce: the Preacher's Son 62

7 The Demon of Grinnell 70

8 The Pig Thief 79

9 A Man on the Move 90

10 Gordon Moore: Dr. Precision 99

11 A Singular Start-Up 117

12 The Wild West 125

13 Bittersweet Memories 133

Part III The Spirit of the Age (1972-1987)

14 Miracle in Miniature 143

15 The Inventor 158

16 A Silver of History 163

17 Dealing Down 166

18 The Philosopher's Chip 172

19 Product of the Century 184

Part IV The Most Important Company in the World (1988-1999)

20 Crush 199

21 Silicon Valley Aristocracy 218

22 Public Affairs 223

23 Consumer Fantasies 235

24 A Thousand Fathers 242

25 The Knights of Moore's Law 259

26 (Over) Ambitions 267

27 Beatification 278

28 The Heart of Andrew Grove 290

29 Mother and Child 293

30 Father and Child Reunion 309

31 Andy in Exile 313

32 Freedom Fighter 326

33 A New Life, a New Name 328

34 Bylined 344

35 Riding a Rocket 347

36 For the Cause 358

37 East of Eden 363

38 Turn at the Tiller 367

39 Eminence 373

40 Crash 376

41 Memory Loss 388

42 Andy Agonistes 393

43 Mentoring a Legend 399

44 The Man of the Hour 402

45 Juggernaut 405

46 Empyrean 408

47 The Swimmer 413

Part V The Price of Success (2000-2014)

48 Family Matters 419

49 Inside Intel Inside 421

50 Wired World 428

51 Pentium 434

52 The Bug of All Bugs 440

53 The Endless Lawsuit 451

54 Mea Culpa 456

55 Bunny Hop 460

56 Running the Asylum 466

Part VI Aftermath

57 The Full Weight of the Law 473

Epilogue: Roaring at the Night 489

Appendix: A Tutorial on Technology 499

A Note on Sources 508

Notes 512

Index 525

Editorial Reviews

08/01/2014
Journalist Malone (The Future Arrived Yesterday) presents a comprehensive history of Intel Corporation. He chronicles the business from its inception as a start-up in the late 1960s and early 1970s to its work with memory chips and continued success as the technological innovator that created the microprocessor—which forever changed the history of computers. Malone describes the founding and success of Intel by tracing the lives of its three founders. One of them, Andy Grove, is a chemical engineer and an instinctively shrewd businessman. Another was physicist Robert Noyce (1927–90), who provided the science for the development of the microchip. The trio was rounded out by Gordon Moore, who developed Moore's law, which observed the exponential growth of transistors on a chip. One of the accomplishments Malone credits to Intel is its reputation as the most innovative semiconductor company in electronics. VERDICT Owing to its excellent original research, Tom Jackson's Inside Intel is a better, more comprehensive work on the company, but this book should be of interest to both general readers and specialists.—Claude Ury, San Francisco

Library Journal

03/24/2014
The manufacturer of the micro-processors that power Windows computers and other electronic gadgetry acquires quasi-divine status in this awestruck corporate history. Journalist Malone (The Future Arrived Yesterday) peppers countless superlatives—even the “Intel Inside” ad blitz constituted “a historic achievement”—throughout his engaging, but disorganized, over-padded, yet sometimes cursory account of the company’s technological breakthroughs and business-strategy coups. The book succeeds in its portrayal of the hair-raising travails of longtime CEO Andy Grove (“the greatest businessman of the age”), who grew up Jewish in Nazi-occupied Hungary and then fled communism. Meanwhile, a lavish chronicle of Robert Noyce’s uneventful middle-American backstory is a less-than-gripping part of the author’s attempt to resurrect the Intel co-founder as a Silicon Valley titan. This is a serviceable account of the digital revolution’s hardware side, but Malone inflates Intel into the semi-conductor equivalent of the triune godhead, styling Noyce as “the beloved and charismatic father,” Grove as “the brilliant but truculent son in a perpetual Oedipal battle,” and co-founder Gordon Moore as the “Holy Spirit of the digital age,” his celebrated Moore’s Law—integrated circuits double their performance every year or two—propelling mankind towards the “singularity” when humans and computers become one. Less bombast and myth-making might have yielded a more substantive saga. 8-page b&w photo insert. Agent: Jim Levine, Levine Greenberg. (July)

Publishers Weekly

Through extensive and unprecedented access to Intel’s archives, Malone describes how each of these vital members of Intel brought various skills and talents to the company to make it the giant it is today.” — Entrepreneur's 25 Amazing Business Books from 2014

“This is business history at its best.” — Wall Street Journal

“What’s been missing is an authoritative work that blends all the key people and the technology with a thorough, up-to-date business history. “The Intel Trinity” fills that gap.” — The Wall Street Journal

“What he has produced is popular history, the tale of an epoch-defining industrial romp and the three men who led it.” — Washington Post

“The Intel Trinity is a fine introduction to the founding myths legends of Silicon Valley.” — Salon

“Richly detailed, swiftly moving work of modern business history, recounting a truly world-changing technology and the people who made it possible. Essential for aspiring entrepreneurs, to say nothing of those looking for a view of how the modern, speed-of-light world came to be.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Michael Malone, one of the most interesting chroniclers of Silicon Valley, has produced a fascinating history of Intel. It’s a valuable study of innovation, great leadership, and colorful personalities. Anyone who wants to know how creativity leads to invention should read this wonderful book.” — Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs

“Few people capture the rhythms and values that fuel Silicon Valley as well as longtime journalist Michael S. Malone. In his latest book, he takes on the history of Intel, a company he started covering when most reporters were still using typewriters. He reveals his deep knowledge on every page.” — Reid Hoffman, cofounder & chairman of LinkedIn and co-author of The Alliance

“Mike Malone’s book on Bob Noyce, Gordon Moore and Andy Grove - Silicon Valley’s Mount Rushmore - belongs with Walter Isaacson’s treatment of Steve Jobs, Neal Gabler’s opus on Walt Disney, and Tom Wolfe’s look at the first astronauts. Trinity is that big and that good.” — Rich Karlgaard, Publisher and Columnist, Forbes Magazine, Author of The Soft Edge

“Malone moves past the standard Intel mythology to uncover many aspects of the company’s ascendance that have been glossed over or lost to history. Malone gives long-overdue credit to the unsung heroes and inventors for their contributions.” — Booklist

From the Publisher

The Intel Trinity is a fine introduction to the founding myths legends of Silicon Valley.

Salon

Mike Malone’s book on Bob Noyce, Gordon Moore and Andy Grove - Silicon Valley’s Mount Rushmore - belongs with Walter Isaacson’s treatment of Steve Jobs, Neal Gabler’s opus on Walt Disney, and Tom Wolfe’s look at the first astronauts. Trinity is that big and that good.

Rich Karlgaard

This is business history at its best.

Wall Street Journal

What he has produced is popular history, the tale of an epoch-defining industrial romp and the three men who led it.

Washington Post

Michael Malone, one of the most interesting chroniclers of Silicon Valley, has produced a fascinating history of Intel. It’s a valuable study of innovation, great leadership, and colorful personalities. Anyone who wants to know how creativity leads to invention should read this wonderful book.

Walter Isaacson

Through extensive and unprecedented access to Intel’s archives, Malone describes how each of these vital members of Intel brought various skills and talents to the company to make it the giant it is today.

Entrepreneur's 25 Amazing Business Books from 2014

Malone moves past the standard Intel mythology to uncover many aspects of the company’s ascendance that have been glossed over or lost to history. Malone gives long-overdue credit to the unsung heroes and inventors for their contributions.

Booklist

What’s been missing is an authoritative work that blends all the key people and the technology with a thorough, up-to-date business history. “The Intel Trinity” fills that gap.

The Wall Street Journal

Few people capture the rhythms and values that fuel Silicon Valley as well as longtime journalist Michael S. Malone. In his latest book, he takes on the history of Intel, a company he started covering when most reporters were still using typewriters. He reveals his deep knowledge on every page.

Reid Hoffman

What he has produced is popular history, the tale of an epoch-defining industrial romp and the three men who led it.

Washington Post

This is business history at its best.

Wall Street Journal

Malone moves past the standard Intel mythology to uncover many aspects of the company’s ascendance that have been glossed over or lost to history. Malone gives long-overdue credit to the unsung heroes and inventors for their contributions.

Booklist

Through extensive and unprecedented access to Intel’s archives, Malone describes how each of these vital members of Intel brought various skills and talents to the company to make it the giant it is today.

--Entrepreneur's 25 Amazing Business Books from 2014

★ 2014-06-05
Richly detailed, swiftly moving work of modern business history, recounting a truly world-changing technology and the people who made it possible.It began with an invention, then a revolt. The invention owes to three physicists, who, just after World War II, developed a replacement for the vacuum tube. “Neolithic-looking in its first incarnation,” the semiconductor had countless uses, and it immediately made fortunes for all concerned—except for those three physicists. Writes longtime Silicon Valley watcher Malone (The Guardian of All Things: The Epic Story of Human Memory, 2012, etc.), one of them, William Shockley, resenting that fact, set up his own manufacturing firm. The trouble was, no one who had ever encountered him wanted to work with him, forcing him to recruit far outside the usual Caltech/Bell Labs fold. That introduction of new blood was certainly good. It was also bad, however, since Shockley—later to become infamous for his inflammatory pronouncements on race—really and truly was detestable. This all set the innovative trio of Noyce, Moore and Grove on the way to establishing Intel. Noyce got things going as founding CEO of Fairchild Semiconductor; his confidence, Malone writes, “would play a key role in making Fairchild, and later Intel, look far bigger than it really was.” It didn’t hurt to have Moore, the far-seeing technologist and coiner of Moore’s law—which Malone invokes like a mantra perhaps one too many times—and Grove, another shrewd master of the market, along for the ride. Malone has his technological history down cold, though sometimes it can be a little daunting, as when he discusses the fraught business of developing the silicon gate, bootstrapping “each gate atop its partner transistor, something heretofore considered impossible.” Fortunately, the author discusses that complex technology within the context of commerce, broadening its appeal to the business audience as well.Essential for aspiring entrepreneurs, to say nothing of those looking for a view of how the modern, speed-of-light world came to be.

Kirkus Reviews