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Fairchild Semiconductor Dead

Fairchild Semiconductor
KindCompany
Founded1957
Defunct2016
StatusDead
FoundersThe Traitorous Eight
FieldSemiconductors
Sourceen.wikipedia.org ↗

The company the transistor's inventors' apostates founded — silicon Valley's true parent; its alumni seeded Intel, AMD, and most of the industry. Absorbed into ON Semiconductor.

Created by Robert Noyce Charles H. Moore
Notable people Robert Noyce Charles H. Moore

Eight of Shockley Semiconductor's researchers quit en masse in September 1957 — the 'Traitorous Eight' — and Sherman Fairchild funded them. Fairchild's planar process (1959) made silicon transistors manufacturable; Noyce's version of the integrated circuit won the patent priority fight.

The alumni seeded the industry: Intel (Noyce, Moore), AMD (Sanders), National Semiconductor, Kleiner Perkins. ON Semiconductor acquired the remains in 2016; 'Fairchild' survives as a trademark.

Sources

  1. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairchild_Semiconductor