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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices
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To: i-node who wrote (544704)1/18/2010 4:42:46 PM
From: combjelly  Read Replies (2) of 1574187
 
"What is your point?"

That the government was part of the whole process. Without its involvement, the industry would have grown a lot slower. Most technology has, in its very beginnings, some sort of government influence. The semiconductor industry was very reliant for research that was done in universities characterizing materials and developing the theoretical basis behind their products. Where would chip design be without Conway and Mead? Their work was fundamental for the development of the techniques by which chips are designed.

"There were certainly consumer electronics on the market before '69 having ICs, one of which was the aforementioned hearing aid application which was mid-60s."

Well, duh. Yeah, the end of the '60s saw commercial applications. But from 1960 through about 1963, the government bought all of the chips. Every last one. After that, the cost of production had dropped enough to actually build them into consumer electronics.

"The point is that the government did not hand anyone a sackfull of money and say, "Go create an integrated circuit" "

No, they didn't. But ICs were the result of years of basic research that was primarily funded by the government. The other part was done by Bell Labs, often in conjunction with the government.
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