“This world is a strange madhouse. Currently, every coachman and every waiter is debating whether relativity theory is correct. Belief in this matter depends on political party affiliation.”

– Albert Einstein (1920)

(Amazing how some things never change.)

As part of my fascination with the history of the semiconductor industry, I’ve recently been reviewing data on the annual top 20 semiconductor companies since 1987. Using revenue data compiled by Gartner Dataquest (through 1999) and iSupply (2000 – 2010), it’s been very interesting to see what changes have come about at the top of the heap in our industry. Here is a brief synopsis of some major events in the lives of the top-20 semiconductor companies since 1987:

• SGS-THOMSON was formed with the merger of SGS Microelettronica and Thomson Semiconducteurs in 1987, and changed its name to STMicroelectronics in 1998.
• Harris Semiconductor was formed in 1988 when Harris bought GE’s Solid State division, and was spun out by Harris as Intersil in 1999. GE was a top-20 semiconductor company in 1987, and Harris last saw the top 20 in 1990.
• Matsushita changed its business name to Panasonic in 2008, which bought Sanyo in 2009. Sanyo was last in the top 20 in 1999.
• The memory businesses of NEC and Hitachi were combined and spun out as Elpida Memory in 1999, which then took over the Mitsubishi memory business in 2003.
• The logic business of Hitachi and Mitsubishi were combined to form Renesas Technology in 2003, taking Hitachi and Mitsubishi completely out of the semiconductor business. Renasas then took over the semiconductor business of NEC in 2010 and is now Renesas Electronics. NEC was the #1 semiconductor maker in 1987 – 1991, and has been in the top 20 every year until 2010.
• Hyundai merged with LG Semiconductor in 1999, and changed its semiconductor business name to Hynix Semiconductor in 2001. LG was last listed in the top 20 in 1997. Hyundai first joined the top 20 in 1995.
• Motorola spun out its semiconductor business as Freescale Semiconductor in 2004.
• Philips spun out its semiconductor business as NXP Semiconductors in 2006.
• Siemens spun out its semiconductor business as Infineon Technologies in 1999, which spun out its memory business as Qimonda in 2006, which went bankrupt in 2009. Qimonda was ranked #16 in 2006.
• AMD spun out its Fujitsu joint venture Flash memory business (started in 1993) as Spansion in 2005, and the rest of its semiconductor business as GlobalFoundries in 2009, which merged with Chartered Semiconductor in 2010. Spansion made it as high as 24 in the semiconductor rankings in 2006.
• AT&T spun out its semiconductor business as Lucent Technologies in 1996, which spun out its semiconductor business as Agere Systems in 2000, which was bought by fabless LSI Logic in 2007 (now LSI Corporation). Agere was last in the top 20 in 2001.
• OKI Electric Industry dropped out of the top 20 after 1993, and sold its semiconductor business to Rohm in 2008. Rohm was last in the top 20 in 2008.
• Other companies to drop out of the top 20 were Sharp (last listed in 2009), Analog Devices (2004), Fujitsu (2004), IBM (2005),
• National Semiconductor bought Fairchild Semiconductor in 1987 and spun it out again in 1997, It bought Cyrix in 1997 and sold it 1999. National was last in the top 20 in 1998, and was bought by Texas Instruments in 2011.

And those are just some of the changes in the top 20 over the last 25 years. It’s always a wild ride in the semiconductor business.

Next post, I’ll look at the current make-up of the 2010 semiconductor top-20 list and see what has changed in the last 25 years.

“The main lesson that I have learned over time is that a good scientist is a humble and listening scientist and not one that is sure 100 percent in what he reads in the textbooks.”

– Dr. Dan Shechtman, interviewed in the New York Times after learning that he had won the 2011 Noble Prize for Chemistry.

Believe it or not, one of the things I was looking forward to when I came back from New Zealand in August was to start running again with my old training group. Alas, the stark change from running in New Zealand to running in the Austin heat was not good for me. On my first run I hurt my knee. It didn’t hurt much so I didn’t pay much attention to it, but after running for two more weeks it was getting worse. I rested for two weeks, but it didn’t improve. So off to the doctor I went. After x-rays and an MRI, I found that I had torn the meniscus in two places. The net result is I go in for surgery a week from Monday. After that, 6 weeks of rehab should put me back in shape to run again – if all goes well. We’ll have to wait and see, but hopefully I’ll be back to training the first of December, possibly in time for races in February.

Could it be I’m suffering from RWO – running while old?

Oktoberfest is the German celebration of beer. In the days before refrigeration, Germans drank beer only in the cool weather months. Thus, Oktoberfest was the celebration of the availability of the first batch of beer after a long, dry summer. It is two weeks long, ending the first weekend in October (thus, most of Oktoberfest occurs in September).

The end of September is a common time for various beer celebrations. Here is a good one:

Texas Craft Brewers Festival
An Outdoor Beer Sampling Festival Dedicated to the Fine Art of Craft Brewing
September 24, 2011
2 – 8pm
Fiesta Gardens, Austin, TX
http://www.texascraftbrewersfestival.org/

“You can’t believe most of the quotes you read on the internet”
– Abraham Lincoln

After two months in New Zealand (and an inadvertent week in Australia), I’m back in Austin. Just in time to watch my home town break the previous record of 69 days above 100F (set in 1925). We will be way past that mark this year – the forecast calls for 110F on Saturday. But, as all of my friends here remind me, I am not allowed to complain (especially after emailing them pictures of snow last month). So I won’t.

I’ve always been suspicious when one’s ideology matches perfectly with one’s self interest. Do you really think in such a case that this ideology won out fairly in the great battle of ideas? More likely there was no battle at all. I have no respect for the Me Party, with their shouts of my rights and your responsibilities. So when I see someone promoting responsibility and fairness over self-interest, I take notice of such an increasingly rare event. Thus, with his recent New York Times editorial, I have one more reason to respect Warren Buffett.

It is one week before I head back to Austin after a two-month stay in New Zealand. While Texas is experiencing record heat and drought, Christchurch is having its second snow day this winter. Heavy snow falls here only about once every 10 years, so to have two big snow days three weeks apart is quite unusual. The University of Canterbury is closed today, but hopefully will be back to normal before my class on Wednesday. I expect major shock when I get off the plane in seven days.