Cringe - Re: "Here's the reminder."
And here's the "story".
Paul
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In the late 1970's, HT Chua, an engineer at Monolithic Memories (MMI), along with a co-worker, invented a programmable logic device that they called a PAL - Programmable Array Logic. This device used an array of fuses and AND/OR gates to produce a circuit that could be configured by the end-user for small random logic functions, by "blowing" certain fuses in the fuse array.
In the book "Soul Of A New Machine", by Tracy Kidder, the use of the PAL circuits was described in detail as used by Tom West, an engineering manager at Data General, as he rapidly designed a new minicomputer - the MV/8000 (code name Eagle) to compete with DEC's highly regarded VAX computer of the time, around 1979 to 1980.
In the early 1980's, AMD invented a related device called the 22V10 which used a different organization of fuses and gates, but essentially produced a similar, but more flexible, type of programmable logic chip. AMD and Monolithic Memories both used fuses that could be "blown" just once.
In 1983, both Xilinx and Altera were founded, and created Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) and Erasable-Programmable Logic Devices (EPLDs) respectively. The products of these companies used Static Ram memory cells (SRAMS - Xilinx) and EPROMs (Altera) to implement the programming elements, both of which could be programmed and erased at will - allowing re-programming in case logic designs changed, which is generally the case for product development.
Around 1986 or so, AMD sued Altera for patent infringement - and Altera quickly settled out of court by giving AMD about 600,000 shares of Altera stock - which would be about 9.6 MILLION shares today (after FOUR 2-for-1 splits !) - worth about $576,000,000 today.
AMD also served as an early partner for Xilinx, and at one time owned 25% of Xilinx's stock - which would be worth $3.75 Billion today.
In 1987, AMD acquired Monolithic Memories, still the leader in programmable logic at that time for the sum of $393,000,000.
Over the ensuing years, the combined AMD-Monolithic Memories went from the largest producer of programmable logic to an also-ran in that business, eventually falling way behind Altera, Xilinx, Lattice Semiconductor, Actel, and a host of smaller companies. AMD was highly focused on competing with Intel in the x86 Microprocessor business and product development at AMD slowed significantly while the start-ups raged a war of rapid process and product development.
As Altera and Xilinx went public, AMD sold off its interest in those companies to help finance its expenses in competing with Intel.
In 1999, AMD eventually sold Vantis, the renamed portion of the AMD-Monolithic Memories Programmable Logic division, which was no longer competitive in the programmable logic market place.
Had AMD not acquired MMI, and simply HELD the stock in Xilinx and Altera, AMD would be ahead by $4,719,000,000 ($4.7 Billion) today !
Paul |
