If Shakespeare were a technology fiction writer, he likely would have come up with something that looked very much like the story of the Fairchild F8 and Mostek 3870 microcontrollers. It’s a story full of misplaced trust, corporate seduction, shifting loyalties, misadventure, misappropriation, legal machinations, and great success followed by oblivion. A truly Shakespearean tale…
Motorola’s Semiconductors Components Group – Motorola Semiconductor – was late to the microprocessor party in more ways than one. The company never developed a successful PMOS process technology, so it was sending custom LSI chip designs like calculator chips for customers out to other semiconductor makers such as Mostek and AMS (Advanced Memory Systems). Despite…
When I first started working for an FPGA company a decade ago, I was stunned to find out how many power supply rails these parts required. I’d never encountered chips that needed five to ten (or more) power supply rails. Even back in the old, old PMOS days, chips needed only three supply voltages and,…