Late Event Notice: The Makers of the Microchip: Creating the Planar Integrated Circuit, Establishing Silicon Valley

You still have two weeks to sign up for an extremely interesting lecture titled “The Makers of the Microchip: Creating the Planar Integrated Circuit, Establishing Silicon Valley” to be presented in Santa Clara at 6 pm on September 28, 2010. The event is sponsored by the Santa Clara chapters of the IEEE Electron Devices Society and the IEEE Computer Society and will be held at National Semiconductor’s Building E Auditorium, 2900 Semiconductor Dr in Santa Clara, California. The high-powered presenters are David C. Brock Senior, Research Fellow, Center for Contemporary History and Policy, Chemical Heritage Foundation and Christophe Lecuyer, Principal Economic Analyst, Office of the President of the University of California.

Now this is a memory blog and, strictly speaking, this isn’t a memory event. However, without the development of the planar IC, we’d all still be using mercury delay lines and memory-core planes woven by Hong Kong tailors to store our bits, so this is truly an important piece of semiconductor history and highly relevant to all things to do with semiconductor memory. The talk presents an overview of the presenters’ new book from MIT Press titled “Makers of the Microchip,” which documents the early years of Fairchild Semiconductor and examines the technological, business, and social dynamics behind the pioneering semiconductor company’s innovative silicon products. The book is based on a collection of documents including the Fairchild Semiconductor's first prospectus; ideas, sketches, and plans for the company's products; and a detailed notebook kept by Fairchild co-founder Jay Last.

The event is free, but you need to sign up here: http://sscsept282010.eventbrite.com/