Chapter 01 of 5
The Traitorous Eight
How a rebellion birthed the modern world and the planar chip process.
- The Spark
The Shockley Effect
In 1956, William Shockley won the Nobel Prize for the transistor, but his tyrannical management style nearly killed his own company.
- The Rebellion
The Traitorous Eight
Eight brilliant engineers, including Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce, quit Shockley Semiconductor simultaneously in 1957.
- The Pivot
From Germanium to Silicon
While Shockley obsessed over germanium, the 'traitors' bet on silicon for its superior heat resistance and abundance.
17 more cards in this chapter
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What was the primary innovation of Jean Hoerni's 'planar process'?
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🔬 The Silicon Engine
- 01The Traitorous EightHow a rebellion birthed the modern world and the planar chip process.
- 02ASML: Sculpting With LightDecoding the EUV machines that print atoms using liquid tin explosions.
- 03The Nanometer MirageWhy chip 'sizes' are marketing math and how quantum tunneling breaks physics.
- 04Taiwan’s Silicon ShieldWhy the world’s economy depends on a few square miles in Hsinchu.
- 05Beyond the Silicon WallChasing the next substrate: Carbon nanotubes and light-speed logic.