Nearly all chips experienced transistor failures, rendering them useless, back in the day. Intel is the monster it is because they were the guys who first found

Nearly all chips experienced transistor failures, rendering them useless, back in the day. Intel is the monster it is because they were the guys who first found out how to sorta "temper" chips to vastly reduce that failure rate (most failures were gross enough to be instant, back then, and Intel started with memory chips.) Because their heat treatment left no visible mark, Intel didn't patent it, but kept it as a trade secret giving them an incredible economic advantage, for many years. They all but swept the field. I've no doubt misremembered some details.