1937-

American electrical engineer who designed the first microprocessor. In 1969 Hoff was assigned to work on Intel's Busicom contract to produce a 12-chip hand-held calculator. Employing Intel's silicon-gated metal-oxide semiconductor (MOS) technology, Hoff proposed an alternate single-chip architecture that combined the separate functions. Refinements to his 2000 transistor CPU were later made by Stanely Mazor and Frederico Faggin, and the product was delivered in February, 1971. In 1980 Hoff became the first Intel Fellow.