Review of Book on Robert Noyce
bbreynolds
a.f.c. Please note the copyright and use restrictions at the bottom of
the review.
Bruce B. Reynolds, Trailing Edge Technologies, Glenside PA
------------ EH.NET BOOK REVIEW --------------
Published by EH.NET (November 2006)
Leslie Berlin, _The Man behind the Microchip: Robert Noyce and the
Invention of Silicon Valley_. New York: Oxford University Press,
2005. ix + 402 pp. $30 (hardcover), ISBN: 0-19-516343-8.
Reviewed for EH.NET by Rasigan Maharajh, Institute for Economic
Research on Innovation, Tshwane University of Technology.
Imagining a world without the advances and advantages offered by the
combination of microelectronics, semiconductors and microprocessors
into the digitally enhanced space we currently occupy is difficult,
if not impossible. While we would readily subscribe to the view that
our contemporary 'brave new world' is a virtual product of convergent
information and communication technologies, very little published
research has sought to convey an integrated picture of the evolution
of this field.
Leslie Berlin, a Visiting Scholar at the History and Philosophy of
Science and Technology Program of Stanford University, has written a
compelling and detail-rich study of the famous inventor, entrepreneur
and innovator: Robert Noyce. Primarily dependent on interviews with
key players in the transistor, microelectronics and semiconductor
sectors, this biography has already received positive responses from
people familiar with Noyce, as well as academic, industrial and
investment stakeholders and role-players.
Berlin's attempts to portray Robert Noyce through elaborating upon a
complex tapestry of anecdotes and primary recollections of actors of
the period. The argument that emerges from her assembly of
information is that Noyce is "one the most important innovators and
entrepreneurs" of the high technology sector in contemporary times.
The story that is therefore presented is actually three tales, which
combine into an elegant single narrative.
The first story is a biography of Robert Noyce. His family history
and early education tells us about growing up in the United States of
America during the mid twentieth century. As such the influences of
economic, political and social history are well reflected in
describing Noyce's youth and the choices available to him. The strong
impact of organized religion is also reflected upon. While it is
suggested that this waned towards secularity, insistence by Noyce
upon rituals of marriage, his difficulties in contemplating divorce
and other cultural norms seem to indicate an enduring influence.
Berlin also provides us with insight into Noyce's early childhood,
academic training, the friendships he established with peers across
his lifespan, his first and second marriages, and his relationships
with his children.
The second story told is one of entrepreneurialism told as business
history. Berlin provides us with an integrated and a somewhat linear
description of the multiple business interests of Noyce. The latter
comment is not intended as criticism, but is reflective of the value
of hindsight in most historical writing. Included are the work he did
with Philco, Shockley Semiconductor Laboratories, Fairchild
Semiconductor, NM Electronics, Integrated Electronics (INTEL) and
SEMATECH. Berlin also covers some of the other businesses that Noyce
contributed to through venture capital and advice.
The third story is a history of technology. Specifically the book
covers the technical artefact: the integrated circuit, the
microelectronics and semiconductor industry and their contextual
location: Silicon Valley. The first part is captured through
technical reviews, patents and laboratory notebooks. Through this
survey we are able to recognize the evolution of the various
components (sic) which we eventually witness transforming into the
fundamental constituents of our current digital world. We are taken
through research into technical aspects of this technology cluster
ranging from the transistor to the integrated circuit through to the
creation of the microprocessor. Again, with the value of
retrospection one can discern the increasing levels of complexity and
challenges these products generate in the process of producing them.
>From a technology management perspective, the role of serendipity and
plain engineering prowess is also highlighted. The latter is of
special interest as Berlin continuously emphasizes this aspect as a
critical part of how Noyce invented, innovated and acted
entrepreneurially: learning by doing and solving practical problems.
With seventeen patents awarded to him and in collaboration with
others, Noyce is clearly the poster-person of the technology, the
industry and its geographic location.
This method of recognizing constraints, introducing novel materials,
and transforming production processes is now well documented through
various and multiple studies conducted by the community of scholars
concerned with the study of innovation. Leslie Berlin augments and
makes a tremendous contribution to this domain by her astute and
abundant archival research. This is clearly evidenced in her nearly
130 author interviews, a bibliography including 115 published
articles, 9 theses, newspaper reports, articles published by and
about Noyce and his patents, videos, oral histories, memoirs and
associated histories, congressional testimony and government
documents and various websites now collected in a single volume. This
collation, therefore, is also the most significant contribution to
scholarship.
While this book maintains a quality and flow of narrative that is
capable of weaving together the three discrete (and possible
stand-alone) stories, it does not engage much into integrating how
the subject of the study was himself influenced and affected by what
was going on both in the U.S. and globally. The Cold War and
Sputnik's role in catalysing the research enterprise of the
military-industrial complex are fleetingly referred to without a
distinct feedback loop into how Robert Noyce himself made sense of
the world around him. At the personal, the institutional and societal
levels the reader may be forced to at best infer the correlation
between events and how these shaped the personality of Noyce. The
dramatic shift from a form of libertinism displayed early on in his
management and organisational styles is contradicted by the lobbying
role he would play for the Semiconductor Industrial Association and
even at SEMATECH. Similar questions require further attention into
the co-evolution of industry, academia and public sector funding that
would sustain the phenomenon of Silicon Valley.
The scope of success for any further research into the evolution of
this sectoral system of innovation is greatly enhanced by the primary
archival collection of Leslie Berlin's excellent book. This should
encourage further research, especially with a more critical eye on
the crucial questions of political economy and sociology which are
not elaborated upon in this work.
Rasigan Maharajh is Chief Director of the Institute for Economic
Research on Innovation (ieri) at Tshwane University of Technology in
South Africa and an active member of the Global Network for the
Economics of Learning, Innovation and Competence-building Systems
(GLOBELICS).
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