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IBM Microelectronics was a fairly significant fab and semiconductor player until the early 2010s. Remember PowerPCs? That was IBM and was used everywhere from

IBM Microelectronics was a fairly significant fab and semiconductor player until the early 2010s. Remember PowerPCs? That was IBM and was used everywhere from iMacs to Xbox 360s to Thinkpads. Sadly, fabrication became commoditized because of outsourcing to Taiwan and South Korea, who gave unfair advantages to their state adjacent firms like TSMC and Samsung.

pavlov 2y ago
Just a nit, but PowerPCs were not used in Thinkpads except for very limited production runs in the mid-1990s. The problem was that IBM didn't have an OS for the platform. They had AIX, but it didn't make sense on a laptop. The idea was that OS/2 would provide a PC desktop of their own, but it barely shipped for PowerPC before IBM pulled the plug. However IBM did design and build x86 chips in the 1990s, and these were used in Thinkpads.
- alephnerd 2y ago
  > but PowerPCs were not used in Thinkpads except for very limited production runs in the mid-1990s. The problem was that IBM didn't have an OS for the platform Doh. You're right! > However IBM did design and build x86 chips in the 1990s, and these were used in Think-pads. Yep! Those were fabbed by IBM Microelectronics, along with a lot of server SKUed x86 chips back in the 2000s.
- yjftsjthsd-h 2y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_ThinkPad_Power_Series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_ThinkPad_Power_Series lists 8 models and says 1994-98, which is a long time ago but certainly isn't nothing, and says they ran AIX, Solaris, and Windows NT.
  - glhaynes 2y ago
    Funny to hear there were ~8 models because my impression has always been that they sold ~8 of them total.
  - sillywalk 2y ago
    These machines cost $12,000+ in 1990s dollars. I think it's probably more accurate to say that a version(s) of AIX, Solaris, NT ( and I think a beta of OS/2) technically existed briefly for some models. While some commercial software might have been ported, I doubt it was ever officially supported. Except perhaps some AIX software? I assume it was binary compatible with PowerPC AIX.
    - yjftsjthsd-h 2y ago
      Checking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARCstation_20 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARCstation_20 implies that that's a perfectly reasonable price for what it was? The more interesting question is (relative) sales volume I think.
scrlk 2y ago
Then it was given away to GlobalFoundries, who ran out of cash trying to take IBM's 7nm process in to HVM and gave up on being a leading edge fab. IBM sued GF for this. IIRC, the GF 7nm process was rumoured to have the best specs vs. Intel, TSMC and Samsung.
- namibj 2y ago
  They also tried to do this with a free electron laser as the EUV source. A JP lab is continuing those efforts, at least.
sillywalk 2y ago
I believe IBM also designed/fabbed the CPUs for the Ninteno GameCube, Wii & Wii U.

pavlov 2y ago

Just a nit, but PowerPCs were not used in Thinkpads except for very limited production runs in the mid-1990s. The problem was that IBM didn't have an OS for the platform. They had AIX, but it didn't make sense on a laptop. The idea was that OS/2 would provide a PC desktop of their own, but it barely shipped for PowerPC before IBM pulled the plug. However IBM did design and build x86 chips in the 1990s, and these were used in Thinkpads.

alephnerd 2y ago
> but PowerPCs were not used in Thinkpads except for very limited production runs in the mid-1990s. The problem was that IBM didn't have an OS for the platform Doh. You're right! > However IBM did design and build x86 chips in the 1990s, and these were used in Think-pads. Yep! Those were fabbed by IBM Microelectronics, along with a lot of server SKUed x86 chips back in the 2000s.
yjftsjthsd-h 2y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_ThinkPad_Power_Series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_ThinkPad_Power_Series lists 8 models and says 1994-98, which is a long time ago but certainly isn't nothing, and says they ran AIX, Solaris, and Windows NT.
- glhaynes 2y ago
  Funny to hear there were ~8 models because my impression has always been that they sold ~8 of them total.
- sillywalk 2y ago
  These machines cost $12,000+ in 1990s dollars. I think it's probably more accurate to say that a version(s) of AIX, Solaris, NT ( and I think a beta of OS/2) technically existed briefly for some models. While some commercial software might have been ported, I doubt it was ever officially supported. Except perhaps some AIX software? I assume it was binary compatible with PowerPC AIX.
  - yjftsjthsd-h 2y ago
    Checking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARCstation_20 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARCstation_20 implies that that's a perfectly reasonable price for what it was? The more interesting question is (relative) sales volume I think.

scrlk 2y ago

Then it was given away to GlobalFoundries, who ran out of cash trying to take IBM's 7nm process in to HVM and gave up on being a leading edge fab. IBM sued GF for this. IIRC, the GF 7nm process was rumoured to have the best specs vs. Intel, TSMC and Samsung.

namibj 2y ago
They also tried to do this with a free electron laser as the EUV source. A JP lab is continuing those efforts, at least.

sillywalk 2y ago

I believe IBM also designed/fabbed the CPUs for the Ninteno GameCube, Wii & Wii U.