1971 Intel Annual Report

Ninety seventy-one was an important year for the investors and employees of Intel. This was the year we became a publicly held corporation and the first year in which our income was greater than expenses.

Despite a depressed computer market and softness in the prices of competing magnetic core memories, 1971 revenues climbed to $9,411,821 from $4,241,253 in 1970. Net income in 1971 was $1,015,080 compared with a loss of $969,915 the previous year.

We moved into the black this year as a result of extraordinary income of $1,427,504 from completion of a contract with Microsystems International Ltd. of Canada. The contract called for Intel to supply technical know-how to MIL for the manufacture of Silicon Gate MOS devices.

Our leadership in the semiconductor market continued last year in both dollar sales and technology. New sales offices were established in Paris and Tokyo. We found widespread acceptance for our 1103 MOS memory circuit, a 1024-bit Random Access Memory (RAM) which was introduced in late 1970 and by late 1971 was an industry standard. These strong 1103 sales helped us capture an estimated 30 to 50 percent of the available semiconductor memory market.

In January 1971 we introduced the world’s first non-destructively programmed Read Only Memory (ROM). This 2048-bit device, the 1601, is user-programmed by insertion of electrical charges into tiny Silicon Gate layers floating within the oxide layer. Where a charge is stored in one of the layers it causes the related transistor structure to read out as a binary “zero” with no diminution of the charge. Because of the great purity of the oxide layer the stored charge is effectively permanent in normal operations. Non-destructive programming makes the 1601 extremely reliable because it’s functionally tested before shipment and it doesn’t rely on blown metal interconnections.

In August we updated this device with 1701, having the added advantage of being both erasable and re-programmable. This was another industry first.

Read the full 1971 Intel Annual Report.