Inventing the IC in 1959 wasn't such a big deal, at the time, for Fairchild, though it became a big deal later on when Fairchild and Texas Instruments wrangled over which company deserved the patent on the device.
Back in 1960, though, it was all very downbeat. "After we introduced the first IC we thought: 'We've done ICs what shall we do next'," recalls Fairchild's head of R&D, Gordon Moore who, in January 1961, announced significant personnel reductions in the 'micro-circuitry group'.
Fairchild co-founder Jay Last, one of the pioneers of the technology behind the IC, tells about a staff meeting in November 1960 at which Fairchild's head of marketing,
According to Lesley Berlin's book 'The Man Behind the Microchip', Bay suggested the IC group be closed down because: 'Last has already pissed away a million dollars on it.'
Leave a comment