Wayne D. Pickette

Conceptualized as the design for putting a computer on a chip, Pickette's work is arguably one of the greatest technological advances of the Twentieth Century. A self-taught childhood electronics prodigy, he recalled reading 2,000 words per minute with 90% retention by the time he graduated from San Martin (California) Elementary School. His early interests included designing a computerized video system for sharing library materials over TV, which he worked on during his high school years, and robotics. In 1967, at the age of 17, he purchased a PDP-8/S computer in order to perform calculations for his projects.

The need for smaller computers for controlling self-contained humanoid robots led to his first design for a microcomputer—a PDP-8 with all of its logical functions placed on a single microchip. He presented his design to Fairchild Semiconductor in February of 1968, but the company rejected his idea. During the summer of 1968, Pickette worked for IBM performing logic design for IBM's Project Winchester, which led to the creation of the hard drives commonly found in personal computers. He later graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a Bachelor's degree in physics in 1973.

When he started working for Intel in the Spring of 1970, Pickette brought his ideas of computer architecture and miniaturization to the project to develop a business calculator, which then became the first microprocessor, the 4004, in 1971. Unfortunately, he has been largely not given the credit for his design, and the official history of the development of the first microprocessor ("4004," IEEE Micro, December 1996, pp. 10–20) leaves the reader with the impression that Federico Faggin, Marcian (Ted) Hoff, Stanley Mazor, and Masatoshi Shima were the sole designers and inventors.