National Electronics, Inc. history

1967: Charles Sporck joins the firm as president.

1970: National reaches sales of $42 million.

The National Electronics Museum grew out of a Westinghouse Family Day in 1973.

1976: Company sales top $365 million, and National enters the computer mainframe market.

National's System 200 and 400 lines of large computers never got off the ground, due in part to renewed competition from the ever vigilant IBM. Itel had similar but more severe problems, forced by IBM price pressure in early 1979 to ask National for cheaper computers with which to compete.

1981: Sales top the $1 billion mark for the first time.

National was at the forefront of political pressure leading to the 1986 Semiconductor Trade Agreement.

The month after his arrival, National announced that it had consolidated its commodity chip lines within a new unit, Fairchild Semiconductor, resurrecting the name of the pioneering Silicon Valley chip company that National had bought in 1987.

Previously operated with a volunteer staff, the museum hired its first professional staff member in 1989.

Even after writing off $144 million in the massive reorganization of the company in 1991, National came up with a $120 million loss in the following year.

1996: Brian Halla comes on board as the firm's new president and chief executive.

Revenues declined to $2.54 billion from $2.68 billion in 1997.

Halla planned to use Cyrix chips as a base for the revolutionary new chip, telling Electronic News (April 6, 1998), "First the PC goes on a chip.

2000: National and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation partner to produce chips in Maine.

The cost of the acquisitions, ongoing research and development, and a weak chip market took its toll in 2001, forcing National to lay off about 10 percent of its workforce.

In 2003 National fared only slightly better: Sales reached $1.67 billion and income was still a loss but at $33.3 million.

For early 2005 National's sales continued to fluctuate, though earnings were strong.