The background for this page is an old die photo (ca. 1972)
of the world's first DRAM chip, the 1101A, a 256-bit DRAM
on a 3.7x4.0 mm die.  One can carefully count each memory 
cell, arranged in a 16x16 array.  The DRAM cell and IC were 
invented by Intel ca. 1969, and the 1101A was the world's 
first commercially successful "LSI" chip (in "PMOS" 
technology).

This photo is of a second-source IC, manufactured by long-
time Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices.

The "IC" itself was officially co-invented in 1959 by Intel 
co-founder Bob Noyce, while at Fairchild Semi.  Intel's 
other co-founder was Gordon Moore, famous for his law 
(Moore's Law).

DRAM technology has always been used as a platform for 
development of more complex logic chips that followed in 
each generation of process shrink.  We have evolved from 
"LSI" being ~1000 transistors in 1970 to today's "VLSI" 
being more than 10,000,000 transistors -- a factor of 
10,000 times!

Intel not only invented the "memory" of the PC, but also 
its "brains."  The world's first microprocessors were 
introduced by Intel as the i4004 (4-bit) and the i8008 
(8-bit) in 1972.  (Methinks it a curious bit of history
that these first "MPUs" were only intended to be programmable
"logic replacement" parts; only a bit later did their true
potential as "CPUs" become discovered.)

Note that AMD was founded in May 1969, a year after Intel,
with a mission of being a second-source -- first to mother 
company Fairchild Semi, but then became a second-source to 
many Intel products, including the i8086/286/386/486 micro-
processor family.  (The "586" was changed to the "Pentium" 
by Intel after a court ruled it could not prevent AMD, or 
anyone else, from copying a part number -- only a name can 
be copyrighted.)

(Note that AMD was only able to compete with Intel's 
Pentium after it acquired NexGen to continue designing 
next generation microprocessors.)

Intel and AMD today provision the world's PCs with their 
successor microprocessors to the i86/Pentium architecture, 
using various names such as "Core Duo" and "Opteron." 
Even the glorious/anti-establishment Apple Mac now uses 
these microprocessors (while originally using only chips 
from Motorola, the M68000 family, and later also IBM, with 
the PowerPC).

(Note:  Dr Jeff worked for AMD back in 1979-82, where he 
acquired this photo -- and this inside knowledge.  He is 
personally related to chief AMD co-founder/CEO 
Jerry Sanders, and once met Intel god Bob Noyce at a 
cocktail party hosted by Mr. Sanders.)