All people
Transistor era (1947-1959)

The Traitorous Eight

1957

Julius Blank, Victor Grinich, Jean Hoerni, Eugene Kleiner, Jay Last, Gordon Moore, Robert Noyce, Sheldon Roberts.

Contributions

  • 01Resigned en masse from Shockley Semiconductor in late 1957.
  • 02Secured funding from Sherman Fairchild to start Fairchild Semiconductor.
  • 03Fairchild became the training ground for Intel, AMD, and dozens of spinoffs.
Why it matters for silicon valley origins

The Eight turned a lab dispute into an industry. Fairchild's planar process made mass-produced integrated circuits possible.

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