Irregular readers of this blog may think Gordon Moore invented the microchip.

He didn't. Moore did have a major role. He was part of the Fairchild team, co-founder of Intel, and his Moore's Law article popularized the changes that chips would bring.

But Jack Kilby won the Nobel Prize for the microchip, in 2000. He died today.

The original invention, designing multiple devices on a single piece of substrate, was invented in two places at once. One team, which Kilby headed, worked at Texas Instruments. The other team, with Moore, Robert Noyce, and other key men, worked at Fairchild Semiconductor.

The resulting patent was shared, but it was Kilby's team that created the basic technology. The key contribution from the Noyce team involved manufacturing process.

More on Kilby after the break.

There's one important point to make about Jack Kilby's obituary.

Jack Kilby died of cancer.

The cause of his death should be a valuable reminder of the dark side of semiconductor production.

The fact is that semiconductor manufacturing represents one of the dirtiest manufacturing processes we have. All sorts of caustic, cancer-causing chemicals are used. The main reason most semiconductor production moved offshore was that California tried to impose its environmental policies on the industry, and it was cheaper to just go somewhere else and ignore it.

We can no longer ignore the byproducts of chip production. All sorts of environments, in all sorts of places, are being damaged. Kilby's cause of death has probably been multiplied a milliion-fold, around the world. And many of those victims have not even been diagnosed yet.

It's time for the industry to come clean.