Fairchild Semiconductor

Fairchild Semiconductor introduced the first commercially available integrated circuit (although at almost the same time as one from Texas Instruments), and would go on to become one of the major players in the evolution of Silicon Valley in the 1960s. In the 1970s Fairchild increasingly turned to "high end" customers, and thereby lost out in the developing microprocessor market. By the late 1980s the company was in a relatively-weak competitive position, and was purchased by National Semiconductor. In 1997 Fairchild Semiconductor was reborn as an independent company, based in South Portland, Maine. In 1999 Fairchild Semiconductor again became a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange with the ticker symbol FCS. Fairchild's South Portland, Maine location is the longest continuously operating semiconductor manufacturing facility in the world.

External Links

• Fairchild Semiconductor company website