Full Review: Intel Museum

To find the museum, look for the huge Intel logo and the tall building with glass on the outside at the 2200 Mission College Blvd entrance.  Find free parking in the lot nearby the entrance to the museum.  This review covers a one hour docent-guided tour.  We met our guide in the museum lobby.  The first exhibit covers information about the founders of Intel, Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce, and the history and technological progress of the microprocessor.  Intel started as 100 employees and is now 80,000 strong and the world’s largest microprocessor manufacturer.  Noyce developed the integrated circuit.  Intel developed new applications of their microprocessor through collaborators.  There is a robot nearby the founder exhibit that answers common questions you may have about Intel- try it out!

 

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Mission College Blvd entrance         Museum entrance

 

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             Museum lobby                         Founder exhibit

 

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      Robert Noyce exhibit                 Talking robot

  

The next exhibit highlights the world’s first microprocessor was the 4004.  It was designed for use in the Busicom 141-PF calculator.  Since then, all microprocessors have the same general design. This exhibit is interactive so you can enter a math problem using the giant calculator and watch how the microprocessor works to solve the problem.  In 1978, the personal computer revolution began.  This stimulated the growth of Intel due to the increased demand for microprocessors.

 

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                            Intel 4004 microprocessor

 

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        View of the exhibits             The PC revolution

 

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 Evolution of the microchip                Microbus board

 

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      Flash memory

 

By 1991, Intel became a household name with its i860 processor that was designed for supercomputers.  These systems used hundreds on processors on circuit boards that had the power to work in parallel to solve complex problems like scientific simulations and financial modeling.

 

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       Silicon wafer             Intel486 chip

 

By 1999, Intel and Mattel partnered to launch electronic toys like microscopes, video cameras and more sophisticated computer games. Click here to watch the interactive binary code exhibit.  The binary code flows in one direction.  If your head or hand get I the way, the code then flows around the obstacle.  There are multiple exhibits showing how microchips are manufactured from sand through a 300 step process and takes you through the photolithographic process.  Chips are cut from the wafer using a diamond  coated saw.  There are exhibits describing Moore’s law that states that the number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit doubles every two years.  

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       Electronic toys               Global roaming exhibit

 

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 Chip manufacturing                  Moore’s law