Robert Noyce was a co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957, but is mainly known because of his involvement in Intel, which he co-founded with Gordon Moore in 1968.
During his lifetime, Noyce was considered the most influential person in Silicon valley and appropriately nicknamed the "mayor of Silicon Valley". He died on June 3, 1990 at the age of 62 from a heart attack and would have celebrated his 84th birthday today. Gordon Moore will celebrate his 83rd birthday on January 3.
Noyce's professional legacy is especially known because of his microprocessor patent ("Semiconductor Device and Lead Structure") he filed in 1959 and is considered to be the documentation for the co-invention for the microchip. Noyce work took place independently from similar efforts of Jack Kilby, who presented a similar result a few months before Noyce. His patent eventually lead to the development of the 4004 processor in 1971, which was the first CPU on a chip and first commercially sold processor.
