Genesis Article.Pdf
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Genesis: A Silicon Valley Tale TECH HISTORY ARTICLE BY DR JEFF DROBMAN Highlights v Fairchild founding v Intel founding v AMD history v AMD – Intel rivalry v Search for CMOS v RISC CPU Architecture v Legendary Parties & Conferences v Anecdotes v Valley Significant Others v Genesis org-chart v Process Technology Evolution v Anniversaries of Technologies Preface [This article chronicles the founding and early history of this storied high-tech region of the San Francisco Peninsula – the halcyon days of chip Camelot. I have employed an AMD/Intel emphasis, since that rivalry is perhaps the most legendary and lasting, and all of their founders came from mother chip company Fairchild. This article represents my personal observations, opinions and later reflections – sprinkled with names, dates and facts. I apologize in advance for any inaccuracies, as most of it comes from my quite fallible memory. Moreover, I have a rather unique perspective, being both an outsider and an insider at the same time, starting in 1965. My sister married AMD founder WJ "Jerry" Sanders III when he was a sales manager with Fairchild. I was a junior engineering student at UCLA staying at their beach house in Malibu when plans for AMD were first being considered by the group of 8 from Fairchild. I actually did work for AMD during 1979-82, a period that would change AMD forever, due to the intro of the IBM PC.] The Legend It has long been legendary that companies in Silicon Valley got started in garages and beach houses, and I am setting the record straight: It is true. Apple was started in Steve Wozniak's garage, when friend Steve Jobs came by and saw his hobby computer. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) got its start in founding president Jerry Sanders' rented Malibu beach house, on a chilly December evening in 1968 – though the house was heated considerably by those entrepreneurial fires. AMD was incorporated 5 months later (May 1969). Historic Fairchild – the Mother Company v In the Beginning … Fairchild The archeological origin of Silicon Valley really is Stanford University in Palo Alto. That is where Bell Labs’ TECH HISTORY ARTICLE BY DR JEFF DROBMAN transistor co-inventor and Nobel Prize winner William Shockley took up residence as an electrical engineering professor. Prof. Shockley immediately founded his own company, Shockley Semiconductor, nearby, ca. 1954. He recruited the brightest PhDs he could find to populate his R&D company, chief among them were Drs. Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, Jay Last and Jean Hoerni. They all worked together on finding ways to make transistors practical to manufacture in mass quantities, and using more robust silicon instead of the then prevailing germanium. But over time the bright young (under 30) group of engineers and physicists grew unhappy working for an imperious Shockley and under rigid working conditions. Back then, it was unheard of for professionals to leave their employer for any reason. But, in October 1957, the so-called “Traitorous 8” group of electrical engineers, led by Noyce, left Bill Shockley to create Silicon Valley's first spin-off, Fairchild Semiconductor. The group of 8 founders included: Gordon Moore, c. Sheldon Roberts, Eugene Kleiner, Robert Noyce, Victor Grinich, Julius Blank, Jean Hoerni and Jay Last (photo below). Wm. Shockley The group of 8 had first contacted East coast investor (early Vc) Arthur Rock to find a company that would hire them intact as a group, but Mr. Rock convinced them to try to form their own company. Rock set out to find funding for a new start-up, and finally succeeded with the founder of Fairchild camera & Instrument corp., Sherman Fairchild (whose father was a co-founder of IBM). The new enterprise was formed as Fairchild Semiconductor -- a division of Fairchild camera & Instrument corp. v On a Parallel Track … TI Meanwhile, back in Austin, Texas, a similar “instrument” company called Texas Instruments (“TI”) had become a high volume manufacturer of discrete germanium transistors, and was proceeding on a parallel track to race Fairchild in semiconductor device design, process development and manufacturing. At TI in 1958, Jack Kilby had become the first to engineer a way to interconnect multiple devices (transistors) on a single semiconductor (later silicon) chip, via external explicit gold wires hand connected. Fairchild’s Bob Noyce improved on that by making the interconnects truly integrated onto the chip surface via use of an insulator (SiO2) under a layer of metal deposition. Noyce thus truly invented the integrated circuit (Ic), but TI’s Jack Kilby claimed the same based on his earlier design. After years of legal battle, TI and Fairchild agreed to be co-inventors and co-licensors of the basic Ic design. It is also worth noting that TI long since copied Fairchild’s university propinquity and synergy model by turning the University of Texas at Austin into its version of Stanford – as a conduit of top electrical engineers. But enough about TI (for now). v Motorola’s Hogan’s Heroes Meanwhile, back at Fairchild Semi, ca. 1968, a new management team was brought in from fellow pioneering semiconductor company, Motorola. (Yes, Motorola is now known as a cell phone maker, but originally it was one of the three Ic pioneers.) This team was called "Hogan's Heroes" – led by Dr. C. Lester Hogan (who remained Fairchild chairman for a few years). Wilfred J. ("Wilf") corrigan was a marketing manager in this group. He became one of Jerry Sanders’ closest, most respected, lifelong cEO friends ever since those “Heroes” days. (Their wives also were lifelong friends, and their families shared many vacations over the years.) After a few years at Fairchild, Wilf ousted Dr. Hogan in a corporate boardroom coup, and took over as © Jeffrey H. Drobman 2007-2018 all rights reserved 2 Rev. July 12, 2018 TECH HISTORY ARTICLE BY DR JEFF DROBMAN chairman/CEO of Fairchild Camera & Instrument Corp. – where he remained at the helm during Fairchild’s heyday. At some point, after years of brain drain, it became clear that Fairchild needed to be sold, and Fairchild was being sought as a takeover target. ca. 1980, Fairchild camera & Instrument corp. was sold to French oil drilling conglomerate Schlumberger. Fairchild Semiconductor was eventually re-spun out 20+ years later, and trades today under the symbol “FcS”. v Big Bad Wilf – Goes to LSI Wilf left Fairchild with a “non-compete” clause, as is typical. Searching for his next thing, Wilf came up with the concept of “semi-custom” Ics -- aka “ASIcs” (application specific Ics) -- and launched LSI Logic in 1981. Wilf was the founding chairman/CEO of LSI Logic, where he remained for 22 years, until his retirement in 2003. LSI Logic was unique in that manufactured under license two of the top RISc microprocessors: Sparc and MIPS. LSI became the major supplier to Sony’s Playstation due to Wilf’s forging a strategic relationship with Sony. Wilf claims LSI shipped over 100,000,000 MIPS microprocessors to Sony. Today, Wilf is retired from the board of LSI, and several other corps. (including Lucas’ ILM, Brooktree, et al.). [Ed note: I fondly recall sitting at sartorially impeccable Wilf's elbow (with his cigar in one hand, a drink in the other) in the 1970s, and listening to his stories. Wilf was always generous to me with his time and candor, and he was always dressed as if he were about to meet the Queen. Well, in a way he was: Jerry and wife Linda comported themselves as the King and Queen of Silicon Valley in those days. Linda and Wilf’s wife, Sigrun, had also been lifelong friends, even though Linda and Jerry divorced back in 1982. Addendum: Sadly, Sigrun passed away in 2008. Update: Wilf now travels the world on a 644 foot, 12 deck, condominium/residence cruise ship he owns a share of, called “The World” (Norwegian built; registered in Nassau, The Bahamas; commissioned in 2002). I traveled (Oct 26-Nov 4, 2010) with Wilf, and my sister Linda, on The World, from Charleston, SC to Savannah, GA to Cape Canaveral, FL for the Space Shuttle launch, which was postponed. I later had a second voyage on The World touring 4 Hawaiian Islands in June 2012.] Intel History v Along Came Intel In early 1968, Intel was founded by legendary semiconductor process engineers Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore. The duo left parent and industry mother company, Fairchild, after being rebuffed on their wants and needs for managing the Semiconductor division. They were suffering a brain drain, with so many new startups luring their engineers away with stock options, which Eastern Fairchild management was not willing to offer. It became clear to the duo that they could only succeed further once again on their own – this time, completely on their own. By that time, 1968, getting venture capital was common. Intel had raised enough capital to last for 2 years, so they needed to be in production on new products by 1970. v Intel’s First Products Intel set out to develop a process capable of the next generation of circuit density, called “LSI” (>1000 transistors). That process needed to be denser in area and lower power than the mainstream process, “bipolar” © Jeffrey H. Drobman 2007-2018 all rights reserved 3 Rev. July 12, 2018 TECH HISTORY ARTICLE BY DR JEFF DROBMAN (using “bipolar” transistors). Noyce and Moore came up with “MOS” (Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor), a so-called “field-effect”, rather than “junction”, transistor structure to satisfy both goals of density and power. MOS was also a highly scalable (shrinkable) process, and thus, has lasted to this day (albeit in an evolved form, called CMOS).