Making the Microprocessor: See Ted Hoff’s Story

In the 1960s, many researchers and engineers began to believe in the possibility of developing a computer that could fit on a single chip. National Inventors Hall of Fame^® Inductees Marcian E. (Ted) Hoff, Federico Faggin and Stanley Mazor worked together to make this single chip design possible. They were able to fit an entire computer within a tiny space with just over 2,000 transistors, creating the world’s first microprocessor. Found in virtually every electronic device we use today, this invention is widely considered one of the most important developments of the last half of the 20th century.

Read on to learn more of Ted Hoff’s story.

Lifelong Exploration

Hoff was born in Rochester, New York, in 1937. Since childhood, he’s been driven to find out how things work, from exploring chemistry to building electronics. “I have nearly 80 years of playing around in technology,” he explained in an interview with the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Hoff’s father worked for General Railway Signal Co., and the company had made motors and relays used by the U.S. military during World War II. Hoff recalled, “At the end of the war, they had all these parts left over, and my father brought home a box of relays and motors, and I started playing with them at age 7 or 8.” In his teen years, he built his own oscilloscope – an electronic test instrument used to graphically display and analyze electrical signals. Television had come to Rochester and he used the oscilloscope to do a bit of television set repair.

About the time he was finishing high school, Hoff was hired as a technician at General Railway Signal. He continued with this job during breaks from his undergraduate studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. In the lab at General Railway, Hoff was recognized as co-inventor of an audio frequency railroad ­train tracking circuit and a lightning protection unit. He earned his first two patents with these inventions while he was still in his teens.

After graduating with his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, he enrolled at Stanford University as a National Science Foundation Fellow, earning his master’s degree in 1959 and his doctorate in 1962. With his research at Stanford on adaptive systems, now known as neural networks, an early phase of artificial intelligence, he earned his next two patents.

Hoff stayed at Stanford for six more years, continuing the work on neural networks as a postdoctoral researcher. Then, in 1968, he joined a brand-new company: Intel Corp.

Worldwide Impact

Hoff was the 12th employee hired at Intel. Working on memory technology, he soon developed and patented a cell to be used in MOS random-access integrated circuit memory, and he became Intel’s manager of applications research.

Recognizing that the semiconductor memory market might take some time to develop, Intel agreed in 1969 to develop custom chips for a Japanese calculator company, Busicom Corp. The chip set requested by Busicom was quite complex but Hoff realized that a simple computer capable of implementing many of the functions of the calculator set could be designed with about 1,900 transistors, and he felt this could fit on a single chip using Intel’s technology of that time. This realization led to the invention of the first single-chip microprocessor, the Intel 4004.

In 1969, Hoff began developing his idea of a universal processor that could replace many custom-designed circuits. He then was allowed to add to his group and brought on board research engineer Stanley Mazor, and together they formulated a target specification for a single-chip computer. Federico Faggin was hired by Intel in 1970 to transform that concept into silicon design. Intel announced the team’s invention of the microprocessor in an issue of Electronic News in November 1971.

The microprocessor industry since has grown to produce billions of units per year. Containing the arithmetic, logic and control circuitry to power technology we use every day – from personal computers to traffic lights – the microprocessor has become essential to modern life around the world.

In addition to inventing the microprocessor, Hoff also led the development of the first commercially available monolithic telephone CODEC, a single-chip device that converts voice signals between analog and digital formats. Hoff has described this invention as “one of the building blocks of the whole world of digital telephone communication.”

In 1980, Hoff was named the first Intel Fellow, the highest technical position at the company. After remaining in this position for three years, he left Intel to become vice president of technology at Atari Inc. and later took on the role of chief technologist at Teklicon Inc., which he held until his retirement in 2009.

In recognition of his groundbreaking work, Hoff has received many awards and honors. In 1954 he was a Washington, D.C., trip winner in the Westinghouse Science Talent Search. Microprocessor recognitions include the Stuart Ballantine Medal of the Franklin Institute in 1979, the IEEE Cledo Brunetti Award in 1980, IEEE Fellow in 1982, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Davies Medal for Engineering Achievement in 1983, the IEEE Centennial Medal in 1984, recognition in Le Livre Mondial Des Inventions in 1984 (Paris, France), the Computer Pioneer Award in 1988, the Eduard Rhein Preis in 1994 (Koenigswinter, Germany), the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1996, the Kyoto Prize in 1997 (Kyoto, Japan) and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 2010. His work in telephony was recognized with IEEE’s James Clerk Maxwell Award in 2011 (Edinburgh, Scotland). He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Drexel University in 2015.

See His Story

In a new video created by the National Inventors Hall of Fame in partnership with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Hoff tells his story in his own words. Watch now for a one-of-a-kind look into his life and work.

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