Federico
The inventor who made the single-chip microprocessor a reality in 1971.
Federico Faggin is an Italian-American physicist, engineer, inventor, and entrepreneur born on December 1, 1941. He is best known for designing the first commercial microprocessor, the Intel 4004, and leading its project group during the first five years of Intel's microprocessor effort. Before his tenure at Intel, Faggin created the self-aligned MOS silicon-gate technology (SGT) while working at Fairchild Semiconductor in 1968. This breakthrough made possible MOS semiconductor memory chips, CCD image sensors, and the microprocessor itself. His leadership extended to developing the Intel 8008 and 8080 using his SGT methodology for random logic chip design, which was essential to early Intel microprocessors.
Quick Facts
- Born
- 1 December 1941
- Birthplace
- Vicenza, Italy
- Citizenship
- Italian, American
- Fields
- physics, electrical engineering
- Workplaces
- SGS-Fairchild, Fairchild Semiconductor, Intel, Zilog, Synaptics, Foveon
- Education
- I.T.I.S. Alessandro Rossi (Laurea in Physics, 1965), University of Padua (summa cum laude)
- Known for
- MOS silicon-gate technology
- Intel 4004
- Intel 8008
- Intel 8080
- Zilog Z80
- Synaptics Touchpad
- Touchscreen
- Children
- one daughter (b., born 1970) and two sons (b. 1979 and 1980)
Lore & Background
Faggin's career began at Olivetti R&D Labs at age 19, where he co-designed a small digital transistor computer with 4 K × 12 bit of magnetic memory in 1960. He later earned a laurea degree in physics, summa cum laude, from the University of Padua. In 1967, he joined SGS-Fairchild in Italy, pioneering MOS metal-gate technology before moving to Fairchild's Palo Alto offices in February 1968. There, he led the development of silicon-gate technology (SGT), designing the unique process architecture for a MOSFET with a silicon self-aligned gate. This innovation replaced earlier metal-gate MOS technology and rendered bipolar transistors-based integrated circuits obsolete within a decade. At Fairchild, he designed the 3708, an 8-bit analog multiplexer that was five times faster and had 100 times less junction leakage than its predecessor, the 3705.
Reader's Guide
Faggin's silicon design methodology implemented all of Intel's early microprocessors. The Intel 8008, the first single-chip 8-bit CPU, was built with p-channel SGT and resumed under Faggin's direction in January 1971, utilizing circuits developed for the 4004. He also created the architecture of the 4040 microprocessor (1974) and supervised Tom Innes on its design. The Intel 8080 (1974), conceived and architected by Faggin and designed by Masatoshi Shima, was the first high-performance 8-bit microprocessor using faster n-channel SGT. It retained software compatibility with the 8008 but offered much higher performance. Before founding Zilog at the end of 1974, Faggin served as Intel's R&D department manager for all MOS products except dynamic memories. He co-founded and became CEO of Zilog, leading the development of the Z80 and Z8 processors, making it the first company solely dedicated to microprocessors.
Did You Know?
- The Intel 4004 used 'buried contacts' to double circuit density and bootstrap loads with 2-phase clocks to improve speed five times while reducing chip area by half.
- In 2015, a $1 million endowment was established for the Faggin Family Presidential Chair in the Physics of Information at UC Santa Cruz.
- Faggin co-founded Zilog with Ralph Ungermann, creating the first company solely dedicated to microprocessors.
- Federico Faggin received the 2009 National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 2010.
More in Characters & Cast
Elsewhere in Modern Family
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced