The Adventures of Silicio

We've explored the story of Traitorous and their profound impact on the creation of the digital world. Another pivotal narrative in the annals of computing history deserves our attention. It's a tale that begins not in the sun-soaked valleys of California but in the historic streets of northern Italy.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the release of the Intel 8080, the first widely used commercial CPU that helped ignite the personal computer revolution. While this milestone is celebrated in tech circles, many people are unaware that this groundbreaking chip – and indeed, the very concept of the microprocessor – owes its existence mainly to the brilliance and determination of one man: Federico Faggin.

Federico Faggin, born on December 1, 1941, in Vicenza, Italy, became one of the most significant figures in the history of computing. His life story is a fascinating journey from a curious boy in post-war Italy to a pioneer whose work laid the foundations for the digital revolution.

Federico grew up in an intellectually stimulating environment. His father, Giuseppe Faggin, was a respected philosopher, historian, and educator. As a history professor at the local lyceum and later the director of a technical institute in Vicenza, Giuseppe significantly influenced Federico's development. He was a prolific author of books on philosophy, history, and pedagogy, specializing in the work of Giambattista Vico. His influence on young Federico was crucial - he cultivated a love for knowledge, critical thinking, and the ability to connect different disciplines. Frequent discussions about the philosophy of science helped Federico create a holistic worldview, which he later applied in his scientific and engineering work.

His father supported Federico's curiosity and experimentation. When young Federico built his own radio, Giuseppe helped him find components and encouraged further exploration. This combination of technical enthusiasm and philosophical thinking laid the foundation for Federico's future success in technological innovation.

Despite the difficult conditions in post-war Italy, Federico showed exceptional talent in mathematics and physics. In 1960, he graduated with honours from a technical school in Vicenza. He then continued his studies in physics at the University of Padua, where he earned an engineering degree in 1965. During his studies, Faggin became interested in the emerging field of semiconductor technology. In 1967, he started working at the SGS-Fairchild laboratory in Italy, contributing to developing the country's first integrated circuit.

1968 Faggin moved to the United States to work for Fairchild Semiconductor in Silicon Valley. He became a key figure in developing MOS (Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor) integrated circuit manufacturing technology. Faggin developed the original self-aligned gate MOS method, which became an industry standard and enabled the production of much faster and more reliable chips.

A turning point in Faggin's career came in 1970 when he accepted an offer from the newly founded Intel Corporation. Here, he became the project leader tasked with developing the world's first commercial microprocessor - the Intel 4004. Faggin designed its unique architecture and managed everything from design to production.

The Intel 4004, introduced in 1971, was revolutionary. This 4-bit processor contained 2,300 transistors and could perform up to 60,000 operations per second. It was the first universal programmable processor on a single chip, paving the way for the development of personal computers.

Faggin subsequently led the development of other pioneering processors, including the 8-bit Intel 8008 and the first truly universal microprocessor, the Intel 8080, which became the basis for the first personal computers.

In 1974, Faggin left Intel and founded his own company, Zilog. Here, he developed the famous Z80 microprocessor, one of the most successful processors in history. The Z80 was used in many home computers, gaming consoles, and other devices. Following his success with Zilog, Federico Faggin embarked on other entrepreneurial ventures that significantly influenced various areas of modern technology. In 1986, he founded Synaptics, a pioneer in touch technologies and sensors. Faggin and his team at Synaptics developed the first touchpad for laptops, a technology that quickly became a standard control feature for portable computers.

However, Synaptics' significance far exceeded the world of laptops. The company became a crucial player in the touchscreen device revolution that followed in the coming decades. The capacitive touchscreen technology developed by Synaptics later became a cornerstone for developing smartphones and tablets. When Apple introduced the first iPhone in 2007, revolutionizing the entire mobile phone industry, it was technology similar to that created by Faggin and his team at Synaptics that enabled intuitive finger-touch control.

In 2003, Faggin once again demonstrated his ability to anticipate technological trends by founding Foveon. This company specialized in the development of advanced digital sensors for cameras. Foveon's main product was the innovative X3 image sensor, which used three layers of photosensitive elements to capture all three primary colours in each pixel. Although major camera manufacturers did not widely adopt this technology, it significantly influenced the development of digital image capture and spurred further innovations in this field.

Faggin's contribution to the development of microprocessors and modern electronics is incalculable. His work laid the foundations for the digital revolution and enabled the creation of personal computers, smartphones, and countless other devices we take for granted today. Faggin has demonstrated his versatility and unceasing desire for innovation and knowledge, from microprocessors to user interfaces and digital image sensors to consciousness research. His work at Synaptics, in particular, foreshadowed the era of touch devices that now dominate our digital lives, underscoring his lasting influence on shaping modern technologies. But there is more to the story of his life.

On holiday at Lake Tahoe, he gets up to drink some water. ‘Back in bed, while waiting to go back to sleep, I felt a powerful energy emerge from my chest... It was love, but a love ten thousand times more intense than any love I had ever felt. Everything changes for him. First, he was the visionary physicist from Isola Vicentina to Palo Alto to design the first commercial microprocessor, the one Bill Gates said: ‘Before Faggin, Silicon Valley was simply the valley’. Then, after that night and that ‘awakening’, as he calls it, he became a physicist trying to find a third, scientific way to explain the Universe. No longer just classical physics - matter, machines -, no longer just quantum physics - the centrality of the observer, the forces between particles -, but both, in a theory that attempts to answer the questions unresolved by physics: what is the meaning of life? *