This Day in History

February 5, 1948

Mauchly Unveiles His Rule for Success.

John Mauchly sends a letter to his partner, J. Presper Eckert, complaining that little progress had been made in ensuring that their new company—Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corp—would be successful. The two computing pioneers had founded the company a few months earlier. Mauchly wrote: "The more I think about the situation in which we find ourselves at present, the more I am convinced that we are losing a hell of a lot of valuable time [because] we are slow in making necessary decisions."

February 5, 1958

Kilby Files a Patent for the Integrated Circuit

Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments files a patent application called miniaturized electronic circuits for his work on a multi-transistor device. The patent was only one of 60 that Kilby holds.

While Kilby has the earliest patent on the integrated circuit, it was Robert Noyce, later co-founder of Intel, whose parallel work resulted in a practical device. Kilby's device had several transistors connected by flying wires while Noyce devised the idea of interconnection via a layer of metal conductors. Noyce also adapted Jean Hoerni's planar technique for making transistors to the manufacture of more complex circuits.