------------ 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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Published by EH.Net (November 2006). All EH.Net reviews are archived   
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