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Joined: Thu Sep 01, 2005 10:09 am
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Bookworm wrote: The story I heard..... Sigh  Federico Faggin: Sure. Back in early ’74, there was a major reorganization at Intel, and I became department manager under Les Vadasz. Les Vadasz’ job increased, taking over other departments that were not under his control earlier. So in that capacity I had a bunch of groups under me in R&D. The largest one was the microprocessor group that was led by Ralph Ungermann, and Shima was working for Ralph Ungermann at that time. Until that time, Shima was working for me. Then I had the memory group for static RAMs, ROMs and EPROMs. I had tiny circuits. I had custom circuits, because Intel was still involved in some custom chips. And also I had all of the layout services for Intel, for the entire department - both bipolar and the dynamic memories, which were not in my group. But that also had [responsibility for] technology development of the group, and they had a bipolar design group. Intel in those days was still involved in some bipolar chips. And of course, I was working for the Vadasz. So at that time, as my job grew, I moved away from strict concentration on the microprocessor only, and the custom chips only, which were my two prior responsibilities earlier. Ralph Ungermann before was in charge of the custom chip development of Intel. In the middle of 1974, I grew a bit restless. There were many changes at Intel. Intel and the whole economy was in recession. There was a layoff at Intel, about 10 percent of the people were laid off. Sometime a year or so before, Andy Grove had instituted the signup sheet. There was a certain degree of resistance, certainly from me and a number of people about this new way of working at Intel. And I was also not happy about the way that [the] microprocessor was still viewed at Intel at that time. Intel was primarily a memory company. Microprocessors were really important for Intel, only to the extent that they would sell more memories and more chips around them. I did not feel really appreciated and supported enough by Intel in this area. I felt that whatever I wanted to do, I had to almost put up a fight with Vadasz. For example, the 8080, as was talked about yesterday, it took about nine months before I got permission to do. The 4040 also took a certain amount of convincing to do. And now marketing, microprocessor marketing, under the direction of Bill Davidow was beginning to assert its own rights to develop chips. Now that was an absolutely correct. They should’ve been defining chips from the Day One, but that was a job that I had done from just about from the beginning after the 4004 and the 8008. And so I felt boxed in at Intel. Also I was working very hard and I felt that I could do better if I started my own company.
http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/Oral_History/102658073.05.01.acc.pdf Also.... Ungermann gained valuable experience working for Intel between 1971 and 1974. He also invested heavily in Intel stock options and learned a tough lesson in personal debt accumulation. While looking for a better-paying job to help him pay off some of his debts, he developed a plan to start his own company. Ungermann teamed up with another Intel engineer, Federico Faggin, to cofound ZiLOG. They planned to develop an 8-bit microprocessor (a computer's central processing unit on a silicon chip) that could drive desktop computers, which were a relatively new concept at the time. Shortly after starting the company, the two engineers scored a major victory when they managed to convince the giant Exxon Corporation to write a $1.5 million check to launch their research and development effort.
In less than a year Ungermann's team had created a breakthrough 8-bit microprocessor, beating the well-heeled Intel and Motorola to the punch. Dubbed the Z80, ZiLOG's chip was an immediate hit. The Z80 became the heart of many of the earliest personal computers and the processor of choice for electronic game manufacturers like Coleco in the emerging video game industry. Within a few years ZiLOG was generating $50 million in sales annually. Exxon, delighted with ZiLOG's success, began investing heavily in the company. With Exxon's financial backing, ZiLOG began drafting plans to start manufacturing computer systems and semiconductor components to complement its cutting-edge chips.
(snip)
Critics charged that ZiLOG, free from constraints placed on other companies by financial markets, wasted millions of dollars developing technologies without a solid business plan.
http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history/Vi-Z/ZiLOG-Inc.html Bookworm wrote: I think it's time for intel and Microsoft to look back and see how some things were done in the past.... Your good old days, weren't anywhere near as good as your seem to imagine  Cheers, Bill B.
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