David House

David Lawrence House (born 1943) is an American engineer and computer designer. He was an executive at Intel, where he led the division that produced the company's microprocessor product line. He was one of the key architects of the company's marketing and managed the team that coined the slogan “Intel Inside”, which was used in the advertising campaign that made Intel a household name.

Biography

House completed a BSEE at Michigan Technological University in 1965. He then obtained an MSEE in 1969 from Northeastern University.

Career House began his career as a computer designer. He worked for Raytheon’s Computer and Communications Division. At Raytheon, he designed data acquisition and computer communications systems.

House became part of Honeywell Computer Control Division beginning in 1968. His work involved the design of mini computers. In 1972, he became the director of Microdata’s computer development division. Two other microprocessors followed, the 8008 and 8080, until Intel's leadership in the market began to be challenged by Zilog’s 16-bit microprocessor, Z8000. House addressed the problem by leading the shift in Intel’s corporate culture from purely engineering focused toward marketing.

In his 22 years at Intel, House was credited for growing the microprocessor division of the company from $40 million to $4 billion annually. House also led the team that developed the “Intel Inside” campaign. He is currently the chairman of the House Family Foundation and also serves as the chair of the board at the Computer History Museum.

Moore’s law House is also noted for his theory related to Moore's law, which holds that the number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit doubles every two years. This period is often identified as 18 months, a period that is part of House's own take on the growth of chip performance.