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The Semiconductor Companies in Silicon Valley in the mid-1960s
The panelists discuss the prominent semiconductor companies in Santa Clara Valley from 1962-68. Amelco was one of the early spin-outs from Fairchild. Others included: AMI, General Microelectronics, Melectro (a Fairchild spin-off bought by National Semiconductor), and Signetics (another Fairchild spin-off) which was owned by Corning Glass. Ted Hoff said Rex Rice of Fairchild told him…
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Why Did TTL Win?
Laws and Marren agree – In one word, “Price” TI figured out how to make a high volume low-cost package so with its 1964 5400 series and then the 1966 7400 series TTL went on to dominate the logic industry.in spite of some technical issues. [Thanks to Tom Gardner for the above description.]
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What About Analog Applications?
Alan asked the panelists to comment on the status of analog ICs in the 1962-68 time period. Bernie said that Bob Wilder of Fairchild solved a problem for Zenith TVs by designing a solid state chroma demodulator that looked like a vacuum tube. David said that Wilder’s operational amplifier (“op-amp”), which was incrementally improved over…
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16 – Workplace in the 60s
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Rex Rice’s Influence On the First Microprocessor
Ted Hoff says his experiences with Rex Rice’s idea of a computer that directly executes a high level language helped him (Ted) and Stan Mayer in developing the architecture for the first microprocessor. [Thanks to Francine Bellson for the above description.]
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18 – Manufacturing, Packaging and Testing