Amelco history

Developed in 1947, as a replacement for vacuum tubes and mechanical relays, the transistor revolutionized the electronics world.

The Semiconductor Division, created from a research lab established in Pheonix, AZ by Dan Noble in 1949, grew into one of the world’s major broad-line semiconductor suppliers under the leadership of C. Lester Hogan.

A GPC TN-10 NPN germanium grown junction device appeared alongside two vacuum tubes in the Sonotone model 1010 hearing aid in late 1952.

The transistor made its commercial debut in the Sonotone model 1010 at a price of $229.50 in 1953.

The Regency Division signed an agreement in 1954 to manufacture a miniature transistor radio based on Texas Instruments transistors.

The company was purchased by Burroughs Corporation in 1956.

The first electric model introduced in 1957 was a great success and the first digital watch, the Pulsar, caught the imagination of the world.

Rapidly establishing itself as a technology innovator based on its invention of the planar manufacturing process in 1959, the company developed the first monolithic integrated circuit, the first CMOS device, and numerous other technical and business innovations.

Beckman sold the division to Clevite Corporation in 1960 after losing his $1 million investment.

Molectro Science Corporation was founded in Santa Clara, CA by J. Nall and D. Spittlehouse from Fairchild in 1962.

The Semiconductor Division based in Woburn, MA developed high frequency transistors and introduced the first commercial TTL family in 1963.

In 1964, Sharp produced the first all transistor desktop calculator.

ITT acquired Clevite in 1965.

Philco developed bipolar linear and digital ICs and in 1966 purchased MOS pioneer General Micro-Electronics of Santa Clara.

The division operated under the wing of Walt LaBerge of Western Development Labs until the business was transferred to Philadelphia and the Santa Clara facility closed in 1968.

In 1969 AMS introduced one of the first 1K DRAMs.

The company expanded into the production of handheld calculators in 1971.

CDC became famous as a supplier of very large and powerful scientific computing systems, many of which were designed by Cray and his associates, until he left to form his own computer company, Cray Research, in 1972.

Development of a small die size 4K device in 1973 established the company as a major DRAM supplier.

To finance expansion, Atari was sold to Warner Communications in 1976.

One of the first European IC manufacturers, Ferranti produced high-volumes of uncommitted logic arrays (ULAs) for home computer vendors and purchased US gate array vendor Interdesign in 1977.

After a $15 million investment in dedicated CMOS and LCD technology and consumer promotion efforts, Intel divested the operation in 1978 as inconsistent with its strategic direction.

Motorola purchased Four Phase Systems in 1981.

Cypress Semiconductor Corporation was founded in 1982 by T. J. Rogers and Lowell Turriff from AMD to develop high-performance SRAM and logic ICs using CMOS technology.

Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. was founded in 1983 in Sunnyvale, California by a group of ten coworkers including John F. Gifford, Frederick G. Beck, and Richard C. Hood.

Xilinx, Inc was founded in San Jose, CA in 1984 by Jim Barnett, Ross Freeman, and Bernie Vonderschmitt to develop a field programmable gate array based on a static RAM cell structure.

The company merged with Sperry Rand, the maker of Univac computers, to form Unisys in 1986.

Formally named Sieko Corporation in 1990, today the company is one of the world’s premier watch producers.

Later renamed Teledyne Semiconductor, the company operated as a unit of Teledyne Components before being spun out in 1993 as Telcom Semiconductor, Inc.

As the demand for high performance mainframe machines declined, CDC suffered financial problems and was purchased by data mining firm Syntegra in 1999.