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Fairchild Semiconductor: 60th Anniversary

173 points by carlosgg 9y ago

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
brudgers 9y ago
More by the author, http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/author/dlaws/ http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/author/dlaws/
grinich 9y ago
I’m pretty sure that “R&D facility in Palo Alto” was just Vic’s garage, at least for the first several months. My dad told me stories about all the guys coming over when he was a kid. That’s back when Los Altos was mostly orchards. We still have the workbench from that garage.
dboreham 9y ago
When I worked at the new Netscape Campus (which was partly built on the site of the old Fairchild Mt View campus) in the 90's there were still some buildings standing from the old days. The Wagon Wheel was also still there, afaik much the same as it had been in the 60's. Had lunch there once. Now all that's left is the superfund site..
- jpmattia 9y ago
  > Now all that's left is the superfund site.. https://yosemite.epa.gov/r9/sfund/r9sfdocw.nsf/ViewByEPAID/c.. https://yosemite.epa.gov/r9/sfund/r9sfdocw.nsf/ViewByEPAID/c....
  - dboreham 9y ago
    That link's broken btw.
    - theoh 9y ago
      https://yosemite.epa.gov/r9/sfund/r9sfdocw.nsf/ViewByEPAID/cad097012298 https://yosemite.epa.gov/r9/sfund/r9sfdocw.nsf/ViewByEPAID/c...
      - dboreham 9y ago
        That's a different site (South SJ != Mt View). The site the Netscape campus was built on was adjacent to Ellis. This one: https://yosemite.epa.gov/r9/sfund/r9sfdocw.nsf/ViewbyEPAID/CAD982463812 https://yosemite.epa.gov/r9/sfund/r9sfdocw.nsf/ViewbyEPAID/C...
        flomo 9y ago
        Wow, a Lotus Domino website that is still in use. (That page was updated 9/5/17.)
cjsuk 9y ago
Bob Widlar, who started at Fairchild, was my childhood hero. I literally last week built a power supply with a µA723, a 1967 Fairchild originated part (although mine was an SGS Thompson clone) because it's still pretty damn well one of the best parts out there even after 50 years. Good times. I wish I was born a lot earlier than I was if I'm honest. Bob Widlar, for reference, was quite a character: http://www.electronicdesign.com/analog/what-s-all-widlar-stuff-anyhow http://www.electronicdesign.com/analog/what-s-all-widlar-stu...
- eternauta3k 9y ago
  You mean there has been no progress in the last 40 years?
  - cjsuk 9y ago
    No. Just what they did 50 years ago is pretty damn good. On the linear regulator front the only progress has been low dropout.
  - dang 9y ago
    This breaks the HN guidelines, which say: Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Could you please re-read them and follow them when commenting here? We'd appreciate it. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- dahtguy 9y ago
  Same, but I'm pretty damn happy being born when I am. The insane amount of material that's on Digikey is just way too useful now. I have a nice poster of the "Every Idiot Can Count to One" quote at home, think it's a bit too aggressive for work =)
- lvoudour 9y ago
  > Bob Widlar Sometimes I hear a name all my life because of an invention/discovery, but somehow in my brain it's dissociated from the actual person because I know nothing about them. And when I finally do, I get this nice fuzzy feeling. That happened again with Bob Widlar (Widlar current source was the trigger) for whom I knew nothing about, not even his first name, but I was happy to learn that he was such an interesting person. thanks
russdill 9y ago
I made a Fairchild shirt https://www.zazzle.com/traitorous_8_t_shirt-235544860993734327 https://www.zazzle.com/traitorous_8_t_shirt-2355448609937343...
zokier 9y ago
In addition to all other greatness, I'd argue that Fairchild had crucial role in West winning the Cold War; Soviets did not have a silicon valley and they never got very good at semiconductor engineering. I'd imagine most people on HN can understand the importance of electronics and computers in 70s and 80s.
- eternauta3k 9y ago
  How do worse semiconductors lead to an economy being bankrupted by the arms race?
  - adventured 9y ago
    It led to the Soviet economy being unable to keep up with the arms race for one thing. It also made economic diversification far more difficult, which was actually their downfall. They weren't lacking for labor, their economy was wildly unproductive, just as it is today. It was overwhelmingly dependent on hydrocarbons. It wasn't the arms race that bankrupted the Soviet Union. It was the dollar, which collapsed the price of oil. During the 1970s oil boom, the Soviets made the mistake of making their economy particularly dependent on oil. Paul Volcker's efforts to tame US inflation collapsed the artificial price of oil as the dollar regained its strength. It's the exact same thing in concept that recently kicked Putin's oil economy into a recession. Namely, a strong dollar, in this case from the belief that the Fed is going to raise rates meaningfully (and beginning shortly after they ended QE). That recent strong dollar perfectly coincided with a record collapse in the price of oil, just as it did in the 1980s. Here is the brick wall the Soviet oil economy slammed into (note the spike begins with the destruction of the US dollar under Nixon, and ends with Volcker's inflation taming via extremely high interest rates): https://i.imgur.com/RXrdHCg.jpg https://i.imgur.com/RXrdHCg.jpg Without significant economic diversification, there was no chance the Soviet economy was going to survive such an intense shock. On the flip side, the US benefited tremendously by the collapse in the price of oil and the taming of high inflation. That combination helped to spark the mid-late 1980s economic boom in the US.
    - paganel 9y ago
cbanek 9y ago
Random aside: In the end they mention an exhibit at the Computer History Museum. I have to say, this is a great museum, and if you ever have the chance to go, go! They have a lot of great history, including the military/cold war type history of computing (things like computing fire control and artillery trajectories).
gt_ 9y ago
I wish i knew what kind of chalk they were using in the first chalkboard image. It's beautiful.
- B1FF_PSUVM 9y ago
  It looks a bit too posed, pre-arranged for the photo shoot. But regular chalk, perhaps slightly moist, on a clean blackboard could do that.
erkose 9y ago
Still a Superfund site https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/case-summary-settlement-reached-middlefield-ellis-whisman-mew-study-area-address-tce https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/case-summary-settlement-reac...
jacquesm 9y ago
No story about Fairchild is complete without a larger tribute to Dave Fullagar: https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/mannerisms/yarns/designing-741-dave-fullagar-2017-02/ https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/mannerisms/yarns/des... He went on to found Maxim. He's rather under appreciated in TFA. The 741 was absolutely brilliant.

173 points by carlosgg 9y ago

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

More by the author, http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/author/dlaws/ http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/author/dlaws/

grinich 9y ago

I’m pretty sure that “R&D facility in Palo Alto” was just Vic’s garage, at least for the first several months. My dad told me stories about all the guys coming over when he was a kid. That’s back when Los Altos was mostly orchards. We still have the workbench from that garage.

dboreham 9y ago

When I worked at the new Netscape Campus (which was partly built on the site of the old Fairchild Mt View campus) in the 90's there were still some buildings standing from the old days. The Wagon Wheel was also still there, afaik much the same as it had been in the 60's. Had lunch there once. Now all that's left is the superfund site..

jpmattia 9y ago
> Now all that's left is the superfund site.. https://yosemite.epa.gov/r9/sfund/r9sfdocw.nsf/ViewByEPAID/c.. https://yosemite.epa.gov/r9/sfund/r9sfdocw.nsf/ViewByEPAID/c....
- dboreham 9y ago
  That link's broken btw.
  - theoh 9y ago
    https://yosemite.epa.gov/r9/sfund/r9sfdocw.nsf/ViewByEPAID/cad097012298 https://yosemite.epa.gov/r9/sfund/r9sfdocw.nsf/ViewByEPAID/c...
    - dboreham 9y ago
      That's a different site (South SJ != Mt View). The site the Netscape campus was built on was adjacent to Ellis. This one: https://yosemite.epa.gov/r9/sfund/r9sfdocw.nsf/ViewbyEPAID/CAD982463812 https://yosemite.epa.gov/r9/sfund/r9sfdocw.nsf/ViewbyEPAID/C...
      - flomo 9y ago
        Wow, a Lotus Domino website that is still in use. (That page was updated 9/5/17.)

cjsuk 9y ago

Bob Widlar, who started at Fairchild, was my childhood hero. I literally last week built a power supply with a µA723, a 1967 Fairchild originated part (although mine was an SGS Thompson clone) because it's still pretty damn well one of the best parts out there even after 50 years. Good times. I wish I was born a lot earlier than I was if I'm honest. Bob Widlar, for reference, was quite a character: http://www.electronicdesign.com/analog/what-s-all-widlar-stuff-anyhow http://www.electronicdesign.com/analog/what-s-all-widlar-stu...

eternauta3k 9y ago
You mean there has been no progress in the last 40 years?
- cjsuk 9y ago
  No. Just what they did 50 years ago is pretty damn good. On the linear regulator front the only progress has been low dropout.
- dang 9y ago
  This breaks the HN guidelines, which say: Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Could you please re-read them and follow them when commenting here? We'd appreciate it. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
dahtguy 9y ago
Same, but I'm pretty damn happy being born when I am. The insane amount of material that's on Digikey is just way too useful now. I have a nice poster of the "Every Idiot Can Count to One" quote at home, think it's a bit too aggressive for work =)
lvoudour 9y ago
> Bob Widlar Sometimes I hear a name all my life because of an invention/discovery, but somehow in my brain it's dissociated from the actual person because I know nothing about them. And when I finally do, I get this nice fuzzy feeling. That happened again with Bob Widlar (Widlar current source was the trigger) for whom I knew nothing about, not even his first name, but I was happy to learn that he was such an interesting person. thanks

russdill 9y ago

I made a Fairchild shirt https://www.zazzle.com/traitorous_8_t_shirt-235544860993734327 https://www.zazzle.com/traitorous_8_t_shirt-2355448609937343...

zokier 9y ago

In addition to all other greatness, I'd argue that Fairchild had crucial role in West winning the Cold War; Soviets did not have a silicon valley and they never got very good at semiconductor engineering. I'd imagine most people on HN can understand the importance of electronics and computers in 70s and 80s.

eternauta3k 9y ago
How do worse semiconductors lead to an economy being bankrupted by the arms race?
- adventured 9y ago
  It led to the Soviet economy being unable to keep up with the arms race for one thing. It also made economic diversification far more difficult, which was actually their downfall. They weren't lacking for labor, their economy was wildly unproductive, just as it is today. It was overwhelmingly dependent on hydrocarbons. It wasn't the arms race that bankrupted the Soviet Union. It was the dollar, which collapsed the price of oil. During the 1970s oil boom, the Soviets made the mistake of making their economy particularly dependent on oil. Paul Volcker's efforts to tame US inflation collapsed the artificial price of oil as the dollar regained its strength. It's the exact same thing in concept that recently kicked Putin's oil economy into a recession. Namely, a strong dollar, in this case from the belief that the Fed is going to raise rates meaningfully (and beginning shortly after they ended QE). That recent strong dollar perfectly coincided with a record collapse in the price of oil, just as it did in the 1980s. Here is the brick wall the Soviet oil economy slammed into (note the spike begins with the destruction of the US dollar under Nixon, and ends with Volcker's inflation taming via extremely high interest rates): https://i.imgur.com/RXrdHCg.jpg https://i.imgur.com/RXrdHCg.jpg Without significant economic diversification, there was no chance the Soviet economy was going to survive such an intense shock. On the flip side, the US benefited tremendously by the collapse in the price of oil and the taming of high inflation. That combination helped to spark the mid-late 1980s economic boom in the US.
  - paganel 9y ago

cbanek 9y ago

Random aside: In the end they mention an exhibit at the Computer History Museum. I have to say, this is a great museum, and if you ever have the chance to go, go! They have a lot of great history, including the military/cold war type history of computing (things like computing fire control and artillery trajectories).

gt_ 9y ago

I wish i knew what kind of chalk they were using in the first chalkboard image. It's beautiful.

B1FF_PSUVM 9y ago
It looks a bit too posed, pre-arranged for the photo shoot. But regular chalk, perhaps slightly moist, on a clean blackboard could do that.

erkose 9y ago

Still a Superfund site https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/case-summary-settlement-reached-middlefield-ellis-whisman-mew-study-area-address-tce https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/case-summary-settlement-reac...

jacquesm 9y ago

No story about Fairchild is complete without a larger tribute to Dave Fullagar: https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/mannerisms/yarns/designing-741-dave-fullagar-2017-02/ https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/mannerisms/yarns/des... He went on to found Maxim. He's rather under appreciated in TFA. The 741 was absolutely brilliant.