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Background, Perspective & 3 Time Periods Covered from 1957-1975
Alan provides context for the session and introduces the 3 distinct time periods to be covered during the panel. 1. 1957-62 Transistor and discrete components (pre-IC period) 2. 1962-68 IC period: SSI, MSI 3. 1968-75 LSI period: Semiconductor memories, microprocessors, consumer electronics, LED displays, etc. To start the discussion Bernie is asked to elaborate on…
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Bernie Marren on the founding of Fairchild Semiconductor, its Managers & 1st product
Bernie explains how Fairchild Semiconductor was founded in Sept 1957 and asserts that Bob Noyce was selected as the leader from the Shockley Labs employees. Noyce wasn’t looking for that position, but accepted it. Bernie names the other Fairchild managers who all got paid the same amount of money + 1 share of stock for…
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Ed Pausa on his early years at Fairchild (1959-1964) in Mt View, CA & Portland, ME
Ed explains how he was hired by Fairchild in 1959 because he had a materials background with a MS in Physical Metallurgy. Ed asked a lot of questions about their production processes and controls. He was made a foreman of Fairchild’s production plant on Charleston Ave in Mt View. Ed later became product manager for…
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Rheem Semiconductor
Bernie Marren discusses Rheem, an early semiconductor company acquired by Raytheon. Read more about this session at: http://sites.ieee.org/sv-techhist/?p=344 [Thanks to Tom Gardner for the above description.]
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Bernie discusses his move from AVCO in Detroit to Minneapolis & Fairchild Sales
Bernie Marren talks about his move from working with nuclear weapon fuses to selling a semiconductor product that Fairchild wouldn’t describe to him and that didn’t work.
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Early Small Scale Integrated Circuits
Alan provides background about the 1st ICs- Small Scale Integrated (SSI) circuits – and their lack of noise immunity as a potential problem. Bernie says Fairchild stimulated demand for SSIs by drastically cutting the price. David reaffirms that fact, while calling attention to unreliable plastic packages that had just come out. Ed chimes in that…
