Following the 1968 takeover of English Electric by Lord Arnold Weinstock’s GEC, the Marconi-Elliott Microelectronics Witham operation has been split into four mini-empires with each empire headed up by a product manager responsible for his own diffusion, R&D, production, sales, promotion, and profitability.
Appointed to head up the Metal Oxide Product Group was Dr Steve Forte who told Electronics Weekly in its December 31st 1969 edition: “I have been in complete charge for a couple of months now. I can have no excuses and I’m responsible for the whole issue.”
His operation was turning out 20,000 ‘bespoke MOS microcircuits’ a month. ‘The Marconi group were among the first to develop sophisticated software with which an engineer can doodle with micron accuracy each of the five overlaying masks that compose an IC design’, ran the EW article.
Forte confidently predicted’ that turnover would double by March 1970, and reach 120,000 ICs a month by 1971.
It was not to be. In 1971, in one of the early semiconductor industry downturns, Weinstock closed down Marconi-Elliott Microelectronics.
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