Mostek
Encyclopedia
Mostek was an integrated circuit
manufacturer, founded in 1969 by ex-employees of Texas Instruments
. Initially their products were manufactured in Worcester, Massachusetts, however by 1974 most of its manufacturing was done in the Carrollton, Texas facility on Crosby Road. At its peak in the late 1970s, Mostek held an 85% market share of the dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) memory chip market worldwide, until being eclipsed by Japanese DRAM manufacturers who offered equivalent chips at lower prices and higher quality.
In 1979, soon after its market peak, Mostek was purchased by United Technologies Corporation
for $345M. In 1985, after several years of red ink and declining market share, UTC sold Mostek for $71M to the French electronics firm Thomson SA
, later part of STMicroelectronics
. Mostek's intellectual property
portfolio, which included rights to the Intel x86 microprocessor family as well as many foundational patents in DRAM technology, provided a large windfall of royalty payments for STMicroelectronics in the 1990s.
The first design to be produced in their newly set-up MOS fab in Worcester, was the MK1001, a simple shifter chip. This was followed by a 1k PMOS aluminum-gate DRAM
, the MK4006 that was manufactured in their Carrollton facility. Mostek had been working with Sprague Electric to develop the ion implantation
process which provided a tremendous gain in the control of doping profiles. Using ion implantation, Mostek became an early leader in MOS manufacturing technology, while their competition was still mostly using the older bipolar technology. The resulting increased speed and lower cost of the MK4006 memory chip made it the runaway favorite to IBM and other mainframe
and minicomputer
manufacturers (cf. BUNCH
, Digital Equipment Corporation
).
In 1970 Busicom
, a Japanese
adding machine
manufacturer, approached Intel and Mostek with a proposal to introduce a new electronic calculator line. Intel responded first, providing them with the Intel 4004
, which they used in a line of desktop calculators. Mostek's device took longer to develop but was a single-chip solution, the MK6010. Busicom used the Mostek design in a new handheld line, the Busicom LE-120A, which went on the market in 1971 and was the smallest calculator available for some time. Hewlett-Packard
also contracted with Mostek for mask
development and production of chips for their HP-35
and HP-45
lines.
address multiplexing with the MK4096 4096 X 1 bit DRAM introduced in 1973. Address multiplexing was a revolutionary approach which reduced cost and board space by fitting a 4K DRAM into a 16 pin package, while competitors took the evolutionary approach which led to a bulky and relatively expensive 22 pin package. Competitors derided the Mostek approach as unnecessarily complex, but Proebsting understood the future roadmap for DRAM memories would benefit greatly if only one new pin were needed for every 4X increase in memory size, instead of the two pins per 4X for the evolutionary approach. Computer manufacturers found address multiplexing to be a compelling feature as they saw a future 64Kb DRAM chip would save 8 pins if implemented with address multiplexing and subsequent generations even more. Per pin costs are a major cost driver in integrated circuits, plus the multiplexed approach used less silicon area, which reduces chip cost exponentially. The MK4096 was produced using an NMOS aluminum-gate process with an added interconnect layer of polysilicon (dubbed the SPIN process)
The fear, uncertainty and doubt
put up by the competition regarding address multiplexing was dispelled by the actual performance of the MK4096 which proved solid and robust in all types of computer memory designs.
In 1976 Mostek introduced the silicon-gate MK4027 (an improved version of the metal-gated MK4096), and the new MK4116 16kb double-poly silicon-gate DRAM. They were designed by Paul Schroeder, who later left Mostek to co-found Inmos. From this point until the late 1970s Mostek was a continual leader in the DRAM field, holding as much as 85% of the world market for DRAM. The MK4027 and MK4116 were reverse-engineered by Mosaid and successfully cloned by many companies.
The 64K generation of DRAMs required a transition from 12 volt
to 5 volt operation. While most competitors took a conservative approach by scaling the basic MK4116 design and process, Mostek undertook a major redesign which incorporated forward-looking features (such as controlled precharge current) that were not necessary at the 64K node and delayed their entry into the market. Mostek's 256K DRAM was further delayed by a then-ambitious two layer metallization design. When the price for 64K DRAMs collapsed Mostek's 256K device was not ready for volume production and the company suffered heavy losses.
and Convex Computer
. Bradley designed all of the custom products based on the single-chip-calculator platform, as well as the code for the wristwatch devices produced by Mostek for Bulova
and other customers. For a short while, Paluck headed a joint venture called Mostek Hong Kong, a collaboration with Bulova for the production of high-end wristwatches based on Mostek designs. Mr. Bradley was an employee of that joint venture. As Mostek's focus was shifted to its DRAM products, the industrial and telecommunications products were ignored and their market share vanished.
(3850 + 3851) into a single chip, which they introduced in 1977. William H. Bradley designed a host of custom products based on the MK3870. Fairchild later licensed the 3870 back from Mostek. They also produced ROM
chips on demand, as well as the chips powering the Hammond electronic organ.
Mostek cut a deal with a startup, Zilog
, in which Mostek provided fab resources to manufacture the Zilog microprocessors in return for second sourcing
rights to the Zilog family. Mostek produced MK3880, the Zilog Z80
and a series of Z80 support chips, until Zilog built their own fab. The Z80 eventually became the most popular microcomputer family as it was used in millions of embedded devices as well as in many home computer
s and computers using the de-facto standard CP/M
operating system, such as the Osborne
, Kaypro
, and TRS-80
models.
When Vin Prothro, President, and L. J. Sevin, Chairman of the Board, discovered that Zilog had modified the recipe for Z80 chips to keep the yields low, thereby buying Zilog time to build their own fabs, Mostek sought a new microprocessor partner. They negotatiated a deal with Intel to gain second sourcing rights to the Intel 8086
microprocessor family and the future x86 designs. After Sevin left to become a venture capitalist (founding Compaq
and many other companies), Prothro signed another pivotal deal with Motorola to gain the rights to the Motorola 68000
and VME
computers.
The Intel x86 microprocessors would go on to become the brains for the IBM PC
, while the Motorola 68000 would become the heart of the Apple Computer
line. Mostek had secured the rights to every microprocessor family that would be important for the next 25 years. However, Mostek chose not to aggressively follow-up its entry into microprocessors—instead maintaining its concentration on the highly competitive (and thereby unprofitable) DRAM business.
at the 10th anniversary of the company's founding, when a large block of stock options controlled by Sprague stock became vested. United Technologies blew their investment. They put someone in charge who had zero semiconductor experience (knowing how to build jet engines isn't the same!) and had no comprehension of either the up-front investment required or the long time for ROI. They also sacrificed their leadership position in some markets and put all of their eggs in the DRAM basket. They eventually spent hundreds of millions trying to keep the company going during the various semiconductor and videogame crashes
of the early 1980s, and eventually gave up and sold it to Thomson Semiconductor
in 1985 for a mere $71 million.
Unfortunately the DRAM marketplace was the beachhead where Japanese firms
would make their successful assault on the global semiconductor market. Mostek was unable to match the Japanese extremely aggressive pricing, and succumbed during a particularly brutal price war when Korean firms (including Samsung
, now the worlds' largest electronics conglomerate
) tried to beat the Japanese at their own game. Micron Technology
(one of several Mostek spinoffs) would later bring suit to prove the Japanese memory manufacturers guilty of price dumping
, but the ruling would be too late to save Mostek.
Thomson proceeded to lay off 80% of the workforce in an attempt to return the company to profitability. The next year they merged with SGS-ATES to become STMicroelectronics
, based in Geneva, Switzerland. Although by this time most of Mostek's designs were no longer commercially viable, their DRAM patents turned out to be valuable and STM started a series of lawsuits to collect royalties. Between 1987 and 1993 STM made $450 million on these licenses alone.
in 1988 to capitalize on the Mostek second source agreement that allowed any 80X86 processor to be legally copied, which Intel attempted to stop via lawsuits. Eventually, after losing many legal battles, Intel simply changed the name of the 80586 to the Pentium, thereby ending the agreement.
Micron Technology
was a very successful spinoff founded by a handful of Mostek employees, including Ward Parkinson, Dennis Wilson, and Doug Pitman.
Integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...
manufacturer, founded in 1969 by ex-employees of Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology...
. Initially their products were manufactured in Worcester, Massachusetts, however by 1974 most of its manufacturing was done in the Carrollton, Texas facility on Crosby Road. At its peak in the late 1970s, Mostek held an 85% market share of the dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) memory chip market worldwide, until being eclipsed by Japanese DRAM manufacturers who offered equivalent chips at lower prices and higher quality.
In 1979, soon after its market peak, Mostek was purchased by United Technologies Corporation
United Technologies Corporation
United Technologies Corporation is an American multinational conglomerate headquartered in the United Technologies Building in Hartford, Connecticut...
for $345M. In 1985, after several years of red ink and declining market share, UTC sold Mostek for $71M to the French electronics firm Thomson SA
Thomson SA
Technicolor SA , formerly Thomson SA and Thomson Multimedia, is a French international provider of solutions for the creation, management, post-production, delivery and access of video, for the Communication, Media and Entertainment industries. Technicolor’s headquarters are located in Issy les...
, later part of STMicroelectronics
STMicroelectronics
STMicroelectronics is an Italian-French electronics and semiconductor manufacturer headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.While STMicroelectronics corporate headquarters and the headquarters for EMEA region are based in Geneva, the holding company, STMicroelectronics N.V. is registered in Amsterdam,...
. Mostek's intellectual property
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
portfolio, which included rights to the Intel x86 microprocessor family as well as many foundational patents in DRAM technology, provided a large windfall of royalty payments for STMicroelectronics in the 1990s.
Early calculator business
Mostek's first contract was from Burroughs, a $400 contract for circuit design.The first design to be produced in their newly set-up MOS fab in Worcester, was the MK1001, a simple shifter chip. This was followed by a 1k PMOS aluminum-gate DRAM
Dram
Dram or DRAM may refer to:As a unit of measure:* Dram , an imperial unit of mass and volume* Armenian dram, a monetary unit* Dirham, a unit of currency in several Arab nationsOther uses:...
, the MK4006 that was manufactured in their Carrollton facility. Mostek had been working with Sprague Electric to develop the ion implantation
Ion implantation
Ion implantation is a materials engineering process by which ions of a material are accelerated in an electrical field and impacted into another solid. This process is used to change the physical, chemical, or electrical properties of the solid...
process which provided a tremendous gain in the control of doping profiles. Using ion implantation, Mostek became an early leader in MOS manufacturing technology, while their competition was still mostly using the older bipolar technology. The resulting increased speed and lower cost of the MK4006 memory chip made it the runaway favorite to IBM and other mainframe
Mainframe computer
Mainframes are powerful computers used primarily by corporate and governmental organizations for critical applications, bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing.The term originally referred to the...
and minicomputer
Minicomputer
A minicomputer is a class of multi-user computers that lies in the middle range of the computing spectrum, in between the largest multi-user systems and the smallest single-user systems...
manufacturers (cf. BUNCH
BUNCH
The group of mainframe computer competitors to IBM in the 1970s became known as the BUNCH: Burroughs, UNIVAC, NCR, Control Data Corporation, and Honeywell...
, Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation was a major American company in the computer industry and a leading vendor of computer systems, software and peripherals from the 1960s to the 1990s...
).
In 1970 Busicom
Busicom
Busicom was a Japanese company that owned the rights to the first microprocessor, the Intel 4004, which they created in partnership with Intel in 1970....
, a Japanese
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
adding machine
Adding machine
An adding machine was a class of mechanical calculator, usually specialized for bookkeeping calculations.In the United States, the earliest adding machines were usually built to read in dollars and cents. Adding machines were ubiquitous office equipment until they were phased out in favor of...
manufacturer, approached Intel and Mostek with a proposal to introduce a new electronic calculator line. Intel responded first, providing them with the Intel 4004
Intel 4004
The Intel 4004 was a 4-bit central processing unit released by Intel Corporation in 1971. It was the first complete CPU on one chip, and also the first commercially available microprocessor...
, which they used in a line of desktop calculators. Mostek's device took longer to develop but was a single-chip solution, the MK6010. Busicom used the Mostek design in a new handheld line, the Busicom LE-120A, which went on the market in 1971 and was the smallest calculator available for some time. Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
also contracted with Mostek for mask
Photomask
A photomask is an opaque plate with holes or transparencies that allow light to shine through in a defined pattern. They are commonly used in photolithography.-Overview:...
development and production of chips for their HP-35
HP-35
The HP-35 was Hewlett-Packard's first pocket calculator and the world's first scientific pocket calculator . Like some of HP's desktop calculators it used reverse Polish notation. Introduced at US$395, the HP-35 was available from 1972 to 1975.Market studies at the time had shown no market for...
and HP-45
HP-45
The HP-45 was the second scientific calculator introduced by Hewlett-Packard, adding to the features of the HP-35. Especially noteworthy was its pioneering addition of a shift key that gave the other keys alternate functions....
lines.
World leader in DRAM memories
Mostek co-founder Robert Proebsting invented DRAMDram
Dram or DRAM may refer to:As a unit of measure:* Dram , an imperial unit of mass and volume* Armenian dram, a monetary unit* Dirham, a unit of currency in several Arab nationsOther uses:...
address multiplexing with the MK4096 4096 X 1 bit DRAM introduced in 1973. Address multiplexing was a revolutionary approach which reduced cost and board space by fitting a 4K DRAM into a 16 pin package, while competitors took the evolutionary approach which led to a bulky and relatively expensive 22 pin package. Competitors derided the Mostek approach as unnecessarily complex, but Proebsting understood the future roadmap for DRAM memories would benefit greatly if only one new pin were needed for every 4X increase in memory size, instead of the two pins per 4X for the evolutionary approach. Computer manufacturers found address multiplexing to be a compelling feature as they saw a future 64Kb DRAM chip would save 8 pins if implemented with address multiplexing and subsequent generations even more. Per pin costs are a major cost driver in integrated circuits, plus the multiplexed approach used less silicon area, which reduces chip cost exponentially. The MK4096 was produced using an NMOS aluminum-gate process with an added interconnect layer of polysilicon (dubbed the SPIN process)
The fear, uncertainty and doubt
Fear, uncertainty and doubt
Fear, uncertainty and doubt, frequently abbreviated as FUD, is a tactic used in sales, marketing, public relations, politics and propaganda....
put up by the competition regarding address multiplexing was dispelled by the actual performance of the MK4096 which proved solid and robust in all types of computer memory designs.
In 1976 Mostek introduced the silicon-gate MK4027 (an improved version of the metal-gated MK4096), and the new MK4116 16kb double-poly silicon-gate DRAM. They were designed by Paul Schroeder, who later left Mostek to co-found Inmos. From this point until the late 1970s Mostek was a continual leader in the DRAM field, holding as much as 85% of the world market for DRAM. The MK4027 and MK4116 were reverse-engineered by Mosaid and successfully cloned by many companies.
The 64K generation of DRAMs required a transition from 12 volt
Volt
The volt is the SI derived unit for electric potential, electric potential difference, and electromotive force. The volt is named in honor of the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta , who invented the voltaic pile, possibly the first chemical battery.- Definition :A single volt is defined as the...
to 5 volt operation. While most competitors took a conservative approach by scaling the basic MK4116 design and process, Mostek undertook a major redesign which incorporated forward-looking features (such as controlled precharge current) that were not necessary at the 64K node and delayed their entry into the market. Mostek's 256K DRAM was further delayed by a then-ambitious two layer metallization design. When the price for 64K DRAMs collapsed Mostek's 256K device was not ready for volume production and the company suffered heavy losses.
World leader in telecommunications products
Mostek enjoyed many years of mastery of the international market for telecommunications products. Their product line included telephone tone and pulse dialers, touchtone decoders, counters, top-octave generators (used by Hammond, Baldwin, and others) , CODECs, watch circuits, and a host of custom products for a variety of customers. The custom products used the simple PMOS process and helped maintain Mostek's cash flow through a smoky fire in the fab that closed it for six months, intense DRAM competition, and other semiconductor market pressures. During the fab shutdown production of the PMOS products was shifted to several external fabs. Several employees played a key role in the Telecommunications and Industrial Products Department. Robert Paluck headed the department, assisted by Charles Johnson, William H. Bradley, Robert C. Jones, Robert Banks, Ted Lewis, Darin Kincaid, William Cummings, and a host of other key employees. Paluck left Mostek to work with Sevin-Rosen PartnersSevin Rosen Funds
Sevin Rosen Funds is a venture capital firm that was established in 1980 by L. J. Sevin and Ben Rosen. SRF was involved in the financing of Citrix, Cypress Semiconductor, Electronic Arts, Lotus Development Corporation, Silicon Graphics, and Vitesse Semiconductor...
and Convex Computer
Convex Computer
Convex Computer Corporation was a company that developed, manufactured and marketed vector minisupercomputers and supercomputers for small-to-medium-sized businesses. Their later Exemplar series of parallel computing machines were based on the Hewlett-Packard PA-RISC microprocessors, and in 1995,...
. Bradley designed all of the custom products based on the single-chip-calculator platform, as well as the code for the wristwatch devices produced by Mostek for Bulova
Bulova
Bulova is a corporation making luxury watches and clocks. It has its headquarters in Woodside, Queens, New York City.Bulova was founded and incorporated as the J. Bulova Company in 1875 by Joseph Bulova , an immigrant from Bohemia...
and other customers. For a short while, Paluck headed a joint venture called Mostek Hong Kong, a collaboration with Bulova for the production of high-end wristwatches based on Mostek designs. Mr. Bradley was an employee of that joint venture. As Mostek's focus was shifted to its DRAM products, the industrial and telecommunications products were ignored and their market share vanished.
Microprocessor second sourcing deals
With this foundation in calculator chips and high volume DRAM production, Mostek gained a reputation as a leading semiconductor "fabrication house" (fab) in the early 1970s. One of their more popular products was the Mostek 3870, which combined the two-chip Fairchild F8Fairchild F8
The Fairchild F8 was an 8-bit microprocessor created by Fairchild Semiconductor. It was introduced in 1975 and was "the world´s leading microprocessor in terms of CPU sales" in 1977.-Features:...
(3850 + 3851) into a single chip, which they introduced in 1977. William H. Bradley designed a host of custom products based on the MK3870. Fairchild later licensed the 3870 back from Mostek. They also produced ROM
Read-only memory
Read-only memory is a class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM refers only...
chips on demand, as well as the chips powering the Hammond electronic organ.
Mostek cut a deal with a startup, Zilog
Zilog
Zilog, Inc., previously known as ZiLOG , is a manufacturer of 8-bit and 24-bit microcontrollers, and is most famous for its Intel 8080-compatible Z80 series.-History:...
, in which Mostek provided fab resources to manufacture the Zilog microprocessors in return for second sourcing
Second source
In the electronics industry, a second source is a company that is licensed to manufacture and sell components originally designed by another company ....
rights to the Zilog family. Mostek produced MK3880, the Zilog Z80
Zilog Z80
The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor designed by Zilog and sold from July 1976 onwards. It was widely used both in desktop and embedded computer designs as well as for military purposes...
and a series of Z80 support chips, until Zilog built their own fab. The Z80 eventually became the most popular microcomputer family as it was used in millions of embedded devices as well as in many home computer
Home computer
Home computers were a class of microcomputers entering the market in 1977, and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a single nontechnical user...
s and computers using the de-facto standard CP/M
CP/M
CP/M was a mass-market operating system created for Intel 8080/85 based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc...
operating system, such as the Osborne
Osborne
- Places :Australia* Osborne, South Australia, an industrial suburb of Adelaide in South Australia* Osborne, New South Wales, a rural community in the Riverina regionCanada* Osborne Village, a neighbourhood in Winnipeg...
, Kaypro
Kaypro
Kaypro Corporation, commonly called Kaypro, was an American home/personal computer manufacturer of the 1980s. The company was founded by Non-Linear Systems to develop computers to compete with the then-popular Osborne 1 portable microcomputer...
, and TRS-80
TRS-80
TRS-80 was Tandy Corporation's desktop microcomputer model line, sold through Tandy's Radio Shack stores in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The first units, ordered unseen, were delivered in November 1977, and rolled out to the stores the third week of December. The line won popularity with...
models.
When Vin Prothro, President, and L. J. Sevin, Chairman of the Board, discovered that Zilog had modified the recipe for Z80 chips to keep the yields low, thereby buying Zilog time to build their own fabs, Mostek sought a new microprocessor partner. They negotatiated a deal with Intel to gain second sourcing rights to the Intel 8086
Intel 8086
The 8086 is a 16-bit microprocessor chip designed by Intel between early 1976 and mid-1978, when it was released. The 8086 gave rise to the x86 architecture of Intel's future processors...
microprocessor family and the future x86 designs. After Sevin left to become a venture capitalist (founding Compaq
Compaq
Compaq Computer Corporation is a personal computer company founded in 1982. Once the largest supplier of personal computing systems in the world, Compaq existed as an independent corporation until 2002, when it was acquired for US$25 billion by Hewlett-Packard....
and many other companies), Prothro signed another pivotal deal with Motorola to gain the rights to the Motorola 68000
Motorola 68000
The Motorola 68000 is a 16/32-bit CISC microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor...
and VME
VMEbus
VMEbus is a computer bus standard, originally developed for the Motorola 68000 line of CPUs, but later widely used for many applications and standardized by the IEC as ANSI/IEEE 1014-1987. It is physically based on Eurocard sizes, mechanicals and connectors , but uses its own signalling system,...
computers.
The Intel x86 microprocessors would go on to become the brains for the IBM PC
IBM PC
The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform. It is IBM model number 5150, and was introduced on August 12, 1981...
, while the Motorola 68000 would become the heart of the Apple Computer
Apple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...
line. Mostek had secured the rights to every microprocessor family that would be important for the next 25 years. However, Mostek chose not to aggressively follow-up its entry into microprocessors—instead maintaining its concentration on the highly competitive (and thereby unprofitable) DRAM business.
The decline in the face of Asian competition
Mostek merged with United Technologies in 1979 to prevent an unfriendly takeover from GouldGould Electronics
Gould Electronics Inc. -- founded in 1884 and based in Chandler, Arizona -- is a company involved in the electronics and semiconductor industries. They make printed circuit materials for use by electronics manufacturers. Having acquired Systems Engineering Laboratories Gould became involved in the...
at the 10th anniversary of the company's founding, when a large block of stock options controlled by Sprague stock became vested. United Technologies blew their investment. They put someone in charge who had zero semiconductor experience (knowing how to build jet engines isn't the same!) and had no comprehension of either the up-front investment required or the long time for ROI. They also sacrificed their leadership position in some markets and put all of their eggs in the DRAM basket. They eventually spent hundreds of millions trying to keep the company going during the various semiconductor and videogame crashes
Video game crash of 1983
The North American video game crash was a serious event that brought an abrupt end to what is considered the second generation of console video gaming in North America. Beginning in 1983, the crash almost destroyed the then-fledgling industry and led to the bankruptcy of several companies producing...
of the early 1980s, and eventually gave up and sold it to Thomson Semiconductor
STMicroelectronics
STMicroelectronics is an Italian-French electronics and semiconductor manufacturer headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.While STMicroelectronics corporate headquarters and the headquarters for EMEA region are based in Geneva, the holding company, STMicroelectronics N.V. is registered in Amsterdam,...
in 1985 for a mere $71 million.
Unfortunately the DRAM marketplace was the beachhead where Japanese firms
Japanese consumer electronics industry
The Japanese consumer electronics industry is one of the most prominent industries in the world and is the world's largest electronics manufacturer by companies such as Sony, Pentax, Casio, Citizen Watches, Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric, Panasonic, Roland, Sharp, Canon, Epson, Yamaha, Sanyo,...
would make their successful assault on the global semiconductor market. Mostek was unable to match the Japanese extremely aggressive pricing, and succumbed during a particularly brutal price war when Korean firms (including Samsung
Samsung
The Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea...
, now the worlds' largest electronics conglomerate
Conglomerate (company)
A conglomerate is a combination of two or more corporations engaged in entirely different businesses that fall under one corporate structure , usually involving a parent company and several subsidiaries. Often, a conglomerate is a multi-industry company...
) tried to beat the Japanese at their own game. Micron Technology
Micron Technology
Micron Technology, Inc. is an American multinational corporation based in Boise, Idaho, USA, best known for producing many forms of semiconductor devices. This includes DRAM, SDRAM, flash memory, SSD and CMOS image sensing chips. Consumers may be more familiar with its consumer brand Crucial...
(one of several Mostek spinoffs) would later bring suit to prove the Japanese memory manufacturers guilty of price dumping
Dumping (pricing policy)
In economics, "dumping" is any kind of predatory pricing, especially in the context of international trade. It occurs when manufacturers export a product to another country at a price either below the price charged in its home market, or in quantities that cannot be explained through normal market...
, but the ruling would be too late to save Mostek.
Thomson proceeded to lay off 80% of the workforce in an attempt to return the company to profitability. The next year they merged with SGS-ATES to become STMicroelectronics
STMicroelectronics
STMicroelectronics is an Italian-French electronics and semiconductor manufacturer headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.While STMicroelectronics corporate headquarters and the headquarters for EMEA region are based in Geneva, the holding company, STMicroelectronics N.V. is registered in Amsterdam,...
, based in Geneva, Switzerland. Although by this time most of Mostek's designs were no longer commercially viable, their DRAM patents turned out to be valuable and STM started a series of lawsuits to collect royalties. Between 1987 and 1993 STM made $450 million on these licenses alone.
Mostek spinoffs
Jerry Rogers founded CyrixCyrix
Cyrix Corporation was a microprocessor developer that was founded in 1988 in Richardson, Texas as a specialist supplier of high-performance math coprocessors for 286 and 386 microprocessors. The company was founded by former Texas Instruments staff members and had a long but troubled relationship...
in 1988 to capitalize on the Mostek second source agreement that allowed any 80X86 processor to be legally copied, which Intel attempted to stop via lawsuits. Eventually, after losing many legal battles, Intel simply changed the name of the 80586 to the Pentium, thereby ending the agreement.
Micron Technology
Micron Technology
Micron Technology, Inc. is an American multinational corporation based in Boise, Idaho, USA, best known for producing many forms of semiconductor devices. This includes DRAM, SDRAM, flash memory, SSD and CMOS image sensing chips. Consumers may be more familiar with its consumer brand Crucial...
was a very successful spinoff founded by a handful of Mostek employees, including Ward Parkinson, Dennis Wilson, and Doug Pitman.
External links
- MK4116 DRAM (Smithsonian Chip Collection)
- Mostek (Antique Tech)
- MostekLives Mostek Alumni Connections, History