Description [Recorded Oct 5, 2007] Founded in September 1957 in Palo Alto, California by eight young engineers and scientists from Shockley Semiconductor Laboratories, Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation pioneered new products and technologies together with a youthful enthusiasm and manufacturing and marketing techniques that reshaped the semiconductor industry. The planar process developed in early 1959 revolutionized the production of semiconductor devices and continues to enable the manufacture of billion transistor microprocessor and memory chips today. Fairchild was the first manufacturer to introduce high-frequency silicon transistors and practical monolithic integrated circuits to the market. At the peak of its influence in the mid-1960s, as a division of Fairchild Camera & Instrument Corporation, the company was one of the world's largest producers of silicon transistors and controlled over 30 percent of the market for ICs. Fairchild's extraordinary success stimulated an entrepreneurial fervor that gave birth to the phenomenon of Silicon Valley. Including systems and software businesses, the total number of companies in the Bay Area and beyond with Fairchild roots today lies in the thousands. This lecture was presented during a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the company held at Stanford University and the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California on October 4, 5, and 6, 2007. Introduced by Staff Director of the Semiconductor Special Interest <b>...</b>
