1 00:00:04,280 --> 00:00:07,240 Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 2 00:00:07,320 --> 00:00:14,200 Speaker 1: stuff dot com. Heyler, and welcome to tex Stuff. I'm 3 00:00:14,240 --> 00:00:16,599 Speaker 1: johns in Strickland and I'm Lauren Bock Obama. Today we 4 00:00:16,720 --> 00:00:21,400 Speaker 1: start a two part series about a very important company 5 00:00:21,440 --> 00:00:24,680 Speaker 1: in technology. But it's one that I would say the 6 00:00:24,800 --> 00:00:27,720 Speaker 1: average person doesn't really know a lot about, right, Sure, 7 00:00:27,720 --> 00:00:29,400 Speaker 1: I mean you know, and it's only important if you've 8 00:00:29,400 --> 00:00:34,159 Speaker 1: ever used a computer or car or a mobile phone 9 00:00:34,440 --> 00:00:37,880 Speaker 1: or yeah, it's only if you've ever used any electronics. Ever, 10 00:00:38,159 --> 00:00:40,600 Speaker 1: is this company actually important? So if you're the luddite 11 00:00:40,600 --> 00:00:43,800 Speaker 1: who hasn't, first of all, how are you getting this podcast? 12 00:00:44,280 --> 00:00:47,960 Speaker 1: And second well, um, okay, but yeah, we're talking about 13 00:00:48,040 --> 00:00:52,320 Speaker 1: fair Child Semiconductor and you may have heard of this company. 14 00:00:52,360 --> 00:00:55,600 Speaker 1: It actually, like I said, it's it's very important in 15 00:00:55,640 --> 00:00:59,080 Speaker 1: the development of technology as we have have it today. 16 00:00:59,120 --> 00:01:02,360 Speaker 1: I mean, it's the the work that they did laid 17 00:01:02,400 --> 00:01:05,840 Speaker 1: the foundation for what makes the technology we use today possible. 18 00:01:05,880 --> 00:01:08,959 Speaker 1: One of their inventions in in what was that? Or 19 00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:12,200 Speaker 1: so is the basic technology that we still use. Right, 20 00:01:12,440 --> 00:01:16,040 Speaker 1: It's one allowed maturization, Right, I mean some of the 21 00:01:17,080 --> 00:01:19,720 Speaker 1: earlier work had already been done before fair fair Child 22 00:01:19,720 --> 00:01:22,880 Speaker 1: became a thing, but or fair child semiconductor, I should say, 23 00:01:22,959 --> 00:01:24,960 Speaker 1: But let's let's start at the beginning. So first of all, 24 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:27,400 Speaker 1: I guess we should talk so what what is a 25 00:01:27,440 --> 00:01:29,800 Speaker 1: semi conduct That's a good question to ask because we're 26 00:01:29,840 --> 00:01:32,920 Speaker 1: gonna be talking about them a lot. So a semiconductor 27 00:01:33,200 --> 00:01:35,160 Speaker 1: is kind of I mean, if you think of the word, 28 00:01:35,240 --> 00:01:37,800 Speaker 1: it kind of makes sense. A semiconductor is some sort 29 00:01:37,800 --> 00:01:41,039 Speaker 1: of material that, under certain circumstances, acts as a conductor. 30 00:01:41,080 --> 00:01:44,399 Speaker 1: As an it conducts electricity, does not Yeah, that's more 31 00:01:44,440 --> 00:01:48,280 Speaker 1: like an insulator. It does not conduct electricity. Now, in 32 00:01:48,320 --> 00:01:51,680 Speaker 1: the case of electronics, were usually talking about something that 33 00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:55,360 Speaker 1: has been engineered so that certain parts of it conduct 34 00:01:55,400 --> 00:02:00,520 Speaker 1: electricity effectively, other parts insulate. Again, all out for this 35 00:02:00,600 --> 00:02:05,760 Speaker 1: thing like transistors. Transistors are essentially electron gates. That's where 36 00:02:05,760 --> 00:02:08,239 Speaker 1: you get that that on off switch that one zeros. Yeah, 37 00:02:08,280 --> 00:02:11,320 Speaker 1: exactly exactly. This is what allows us to control the 38 00:02:11,320 --> 00:02:14,680 Speaker 1: flow of electrons through a circuit so that we can 39 00:02:14,919 --> 00:02:19,560 Speaker 1: have various outcomes. So for example, with a microprocessor, where 40 00:02:19,680 --> 00:02:22,800 Speaker 1: you're using something in a in a computer or a 41 00:02:22,880 --> 00:02:27,400 Speaker 1: mobile handset, this is what allows that those logical functions 42 00:02:27,440 --> 00:02:31,040 Speaker 1: to take place, and we use things called logic gates. 43 00:02:31,080 --> 00:02:34,720 Speaker 1: Logic gates are essentially rules that say, when you get 44 00:02:34,760 --> 00:02:38,639 Speaker 1: this kind of input, you will create this kind of output. 45 00:02:39,360 --> 00:02:42,160 Speaker 1: So let's say, here's a really simple example showing the 46 00:02:42,240 --> 00:02:46,320 Speaker 1: one zero concept. Let's say you have two light switches, 47 00:02:46,639 --> 00:02:50,679 Speaker 1: all right, and you have one light bulb, and if 48 00:02:50,720 --> 00:02:53,720 Speaker 1: you flip a light switch to the up position, that's 49 00:02:53,760 --> 00:02:57,799 Speaker 1: technically uh, the number one. Let's say, so, let's say 50 00:02:57,800 --> 00:03:00,280 Speaker 1: you flip both lights, which is up to the number 51 00:03:00,320 --> 00:03:03,080 Speaker 1: one position, and the light bulb comes on, so that 52 00:03:03,080 --> 00:03:06,360 Speaker 1: would be one one one, everything is on. If you 53 00:03:06,480 --> 00:03:09,239 Speaker 1: switch both lights, which is to the off position, that 54 00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:11,720 Speaker 1: would be zero. The light bulb goes off. That's zero 55 00:03:11,800 --> 00:03:14,360 Speaker 1: zero zero. Now, let's say you switch the first light 56 00:03:14,760 --> 00:03:17,160 Speaker 1: switch on, second light switch off, and the light bulb 57 00:03:17,200 --> 00:03:21,120 Speaker 1: comes on. That's one zero one. You do first light 58 00:03:21,120 --> 00:03:24,320 Speaker 1: switch down, second light switch up at zero one, and 59 00:03:24,360 --> 00:03:26,520 Speaker 1: then the light bulb comes on. That's another one. So 60 00:03:26,560 --> 00:03:28,280 Speaker 1: that would be an example of a gate, and you 61 00:03:28,280 --> 00:03:31,600 Speaker 1: can have all different kinds of combinations with that particular gate. 62 00:03:31,680 --> 00:03:33,920 Speaker 1: It could be that when both switches are down, the 63 00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:37,040 Speaker 1: lights on, but in any other combination it's off. That's 64 00:03:37,160 --> 00:03:41,040 Speaker 1: all different types of logic gates. So we create these 65 00:03:41,040 --> 00:03:46,640 Speaker 1: logic gates to create the different scenarios necessary to process data. 66 00:03:46,960 --> 00:03:49,840 Speaker 1: And this data is just in the form of electrons. Now, 67 00:03:49,960 --> 00:03:54,520 Speaker 1: what I explained to you might sound like sorcery, but no, seriously, 68 00:03:54,560 --> 00:03:58,440 Speaker 1: this is the basis of electronics and computers. And uh, 69 00:03:58,560 --> 00:04:02,360 Speaker 1: the fact that we're able to to miniaturize these elements 70 00:04:02,360 --> 00:04:05,360 Speaker 1: to teeny teeny tiny amounts. We're talking the nano scale 71 00:04:05,400 --> 00:04:08,920 Speaker 1: these days is what allows us to have the computers 72 00:04:08,960 --> 00:04:11,600 Speaker 1: and mobile devices that we use today. Otherwise we would 73 00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:16,320 Speaker 1: still be depending upon massive, massive pieces of electronic equipment 74 00:04:16,839 --> 00:04:19,200 Speaker 1: right right, you're you would be tethered to a room 75 00:04:19,360 --> 00:04:22,920 Speaker 1: rather than a cell phone or a building. Tweet. Yeah, 76 00:04:22,920 --> 00:04:25,680 Speaker 1: because we're talking back in those days. You know, we're 77 00:04:25,720 --> 00:04:29,960 Speaker 1: just talking circuits, and circuits are just pathways for electricity. 78 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:33,080 Speaker 1: That's really what a basic circuit is. In the old days, 79 00:04:33,080 --> 00:04:35,760 Speaker 1: you made these pathways out of physical wires and other 80 00:04:35,800 --> 00:04:38,480 Speaker 1: components that were huge, like vacuum tubes. I mean, these 81 00:04:38,480 --> 00:04:42,160 Speaker 1: are big, big things. It was only after the transistor 82 00:04:42,360 --> 00:04:45,840 Speaker 1: was invented that we started to see the possibility of 83 00:04:45,880 --> 00:04:49,680 Speaker 1: moving away from that. And even those earliest transistors weren't 84 00:04:49,880 --> 00:04:53,000 Speaker 1: integrated circuits. They were right. They were pretty bulky. They 85 00:04:53,040 --> 00:04:57,679 Speaker 1: were frequently called Mesa transistors because they slightly resembled Mesa 86 00:04:57,720 --> 00:05:00,919 Speaker 1: settlements in the desert because they were big and blocky 87 00:05:00,920 --> 00:05:03,719 Speaker 1: and weird looking. And yeah, yeah, the very first one 88 00:05:04,360 --> 00:05:07,719 Speaker 1: is practically enormous. I mean you can see pictures of 89 00:05:07,720 --> 00:05:10,000 Speaker 1: it in things like the Computer History Museum. They have 90 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:14,480 Speaker 1: a replica. Uh. But anyway, one of the three inventors, 91 00:05:14,640 --> 00:05:17,920 Speaker 1: one of the three people we credit with inventing the 92 00:05:17,920 --> 00:05:22,880 Speaker 1: the transistor, was William Bradford Shockley. Uh. And he and 93 00:05:22,960 --> 00:05:27,200 Speaker 1: John Bardeen and Walter H. Brittaine. We're working at Bell Telephone. Yeah, 94 00:05:27,279 --> 00:05:31,039 Speaker 1: Bell Telephone Labs. So they were over at Bell Labs 95 00:05:31,080 --> 00:05:35,039 Speaker 1: and they created that first semi conductor back in nineteen Now, 96 00:05:35,120 --> 00:05:39,039 Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty four, Shockley left Bell Labs to found 97 00:05:39,200 --> 00:05:44,400 Speaker 1: his own semiconductor factory called Shockley semi Conductors, and he 98 00:05:44,480 --> 00:05:48,000 Speaker 1: hired up all these smart engineers and scientists. He was 99 00:05:48,120 --> 00:05:50,039 Speaker 1: He said, these are the people that are going to 100 00:05:50,080 --> 00:05:53,479 Speaker 1: really push this as an industry. I see the potential here. 101 00:05:53,920 --> 00:05:58,160 Speaker 1: We need to really grab the best and brightest and 102 00:05:58,160 --> 00:05:59,880 Speaker 1: and he knew a lot about that at the time. 103 00:06:00,160 --> 00:06:03,560 Speaker 1: Nineteen fifty six he won the Nobel Prize in Physics. Yeah, yeah, no, 104 00:06:03,680 --> 00:06:06,560 Speaker 1: he was one of the I believe he and a 105 00:06:06,560 --> 00:06:09,120 Speaker 1: couple of others were credited with it. But yes, he 106 00:06:09,200 --> 00:06:11,720 Speaker 1: was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work 107 00:06:11,760 --> 00:06:17,119 Speaker 1: in creating transistors. Yes, sport guy. However, in nineteen fifty six, 108 00:06:17,880 --> 00:06:22,520 Speaker 1: about eight of the twelve brilliant guys that he hired said, 109 00:06:22,680 --> 00:06:26,680 Speaker 1: you know, we're not really a fan of your practices 110 00:06:26,839 --> 00:06:31,360 Speaker 1: or management style, or you're kind of a jerk your face. Yeah, okay, So, 111 00:06:31,560 --> 00:06:34,039 Speaker 1: in the interest of full disclosure, Shockley, if you ever 112 00:06:34,120 --> 00:06:38,680 Speaker 1: look him up, held some incredibly controversial and really not 113 00:06:38,880 --> 00:06:43,120 Speaker 1: nice views. I've I've heard him compared to a slightly 114 00:06:43,200 --> 00:06:49,040 Speaker 1: less polite Howard Hughes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you're wondering 115 00:06:49,040 --> 00:06:52,120 Speaker 1: what we're talking about, look up William Bradford Shockley. It's 116 00:06:52,160 --> 00:06:54,120 Speaker 1: not really germane to this discussion. So we're not going 117 00:06:54,160 --> 00:06:56,520 Speaker 1: to cover right. Maybe we'll do an episode about him 118 00:06:56,640 --> 00:06:59,839 Speaker 1: some other time. But so so it was important that 119 00:06:59,839 --> 00:07:03,040 Speaker 1: he are these twelve people um and and was concentrating 120 00:07:03,080 --> 00:07:05,680 Speaker 1: them on trying to figure out ways of using um 121 00:07:05,400 --> 00:07:08,880 Speaker 1: uh germanium and silicon, right, yes, because those were the 122 00:07:09,240 --> 00:07:12,520 Speaker 1: materials that seemed to be the most promising for semiconductors. 123 00:07:13,200 --> 00:07:16,880 Speaker 1: And these eight, eight of the twelve decided to leave, 124 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:20,960 Speaker 1: and of course Shockley, being the understated fellow that he is, 125 00:07:21,080 --> 00:07:25,800 Speaker 1: labeled them the traitorous eight. Yes, which I love. They 126 00:07:26,240 --> 00:07:31,480 Speaker 1: broke my heart. Fredo. So ninety seven, these eight engineers, 127 00:07:31,600 --> 00:07:34,720 Speaker 1: and you're gonna recognize at least one of these names, guys, 128 00:07:34,760 --> 00:07:38,240 Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure I'll leave the one that you'll recognize, uh, 129 00:07:38,440 --> 00:07:43,080 Speaker 1: most likely. Last there was A C. Sheldon, Roberts, Eugene Kleiner, 130 00:07:43,240 --> 00:07:45,880 Speaker 1: Robert and Noise. I'm sure some of you recognize that name. 131 00:07:46,040 --> 00:07:52,040 Speaker 1: Victor H. Grinch, Julius Blank, Jean A. Hernie, and J. T. Last, 132 00:07:52,240 --> 00:07:56,240 Speaker 1: the last one is Gordon E. Moore, a k A. 133 00:07:56,400 --> 00:07:58,320 Speaker 1: That guy who came up with Morris Law. Yeah, this 134 00:07:58,400 --> 00:08:01,040 Speaker 1: is the guy who created Moore's Law, which was of 135 00:08:01,040 --> 00:08:03,640 Speaker 1: course an observation. He had observed that there was this 136 00:08:03,760 --> 00:08:08,760 Speaker 1: tendency for manufacturing companies to cram twice as many components 137 00:08:08,880 --> 00:08:13,560 Speaker 1: onto a square inch silicon chip um every year or so. 138 00:08:14,560 --> 00:08:18,560 Speaker 1: Now we've since reinterpreted that to mean that every two 139 00:08:18,640 --> 00:08:20,880 Speaker 1: years or so, computers get twice as powerful as they 140 00:08:20,960 --> 00:08:24,720 Speaker 1: used to be. Anyway, this he was one of the 141 00:08:24,760 --> 00:08:27,640 Speaker 1: founding members. These guys they decided to leave, and they 142 00:08:27,640 --> 00:08:30,680 Speaker 1: decided they wanted to find found their own company. And 143 00:08:30,720 --> 00:08:35,359 Speaker 1: they approached a company called fair Child Camera and Instrument Corporation, 144 00:08:35,400 --> 00:08:38,000 Speaker 1: which was located located of New York, and they were 145 00:08:38,040 --> 00:08:40,760 Speaker 1: looking to get into superconductors at the time, semi conductors 146 00:08:40,760 --> 00:08:43,160 Speaker 1: at the time. Exact conductors are a different thing, right, right, 147 00:08:43,240 --> 00:08:46,600 Speaker 1: but semiconductors. Yes. By the way, people, we're recording this 148 00:08:46,679 --> 00:08:49,240 Speaker 1: in a very warm room, so there's gonna be some 149 00:08:49,320 --> 00:08:51,360 Speaker 1: verbal stumbles on on the part of both of us, 150 00:08:51,360 --> 00:08:55,680 Speaker 1: and maybe even Tyler, who was sitting in for Noeld today. Hi, Tyler, Tyler, 151 00:08:55,880 --> 00:09:00,000 Speaker 1: Tyler tan waving which is great for radio so um. 152 00:09:00,040 --> 00:09:05,240 Speaker 1: At any rate, they went to Fairchild Camera Instrument Corporation 153 00:09:05,240 --> 00:09:07,400 Speaker 1: and said, hey, guys, I hear that you are looking 154 00:09:07,440 --> 00:09:11,760 Speaker 1: at getting into the semiconductor business. We are very knowledgeable 155 00:09:11,760 --> 00:09:14,559 Speaker 1: about semiconductors. How about we get together and work on this. 156 00:09:15,160 --> 00:09:18,360 Speaker 1: And the fair Child said, uh, maybe, and so they 157 00:09:18,440 --> 00:09:20,720 Speaker 1: kind of drew up an agreement, and in that agreement, 158 00:09:21,440 --> 00:09:24,760 Speaker 1: each of the engineers put five hundred dollars of their 159 00:09:24,800 --> 00:09:28,240 Speaker 1: own money toward this as a stake in the venture, 160 00:09:28,720 --> 00:09:31,440 Speaker 1: and then a fair Child threw in another one and 161 00:09:31,440 --> 00:09:35,800 Speaker 1: a half million, so you know, equal equal parts all around, 162 00:09:35,880 --> 00:09:40,240 Speaker 1: right sure, but yeah, it started. Also the fair Child 163 00:09:40,320 --> 00:09:43,000 Speaker 1: had the option to outright by the company within eight 164 00:09:43,080 --> 00:09:47,359 Speaker 1: years of its starting, and so the cons of that, yeah, 165 00:09:47,480 --> 00:09:49,640 Speaker 1: you got to read the fine print, guys. Know. So 166 00:09:49,679 --> 00:09:54,280 Speaker 1: in October of seven, fair Child Semiconductor becomes a real thing, 167 00:09:54,440 --> 00:09:56,640 Speaker 1: and it was just the third company that existed in 168 00:09:56,640 --> 00:09:59,440 Speaker 1: Silicon Valley. Um, of course, it wasn't called Silicon Valley 169 00:09:59,440 --> 00:10:01,480 Speaker 1: at the time. It was called Santa Clara Valley to 170 00:10:01,520 --> 00:10:03,600 Speaker 1: anyone who you know, happened to live there. Yeah, if 171 00:10:03,640 --> 00:10:06,240 Speaker 1: you're wondering what the first one was, that's Hewlett Packard. 172 00:10:06,679 --> 00:10:09,360 Speaker 1: That's technically the first company in Silicon Valley. They and 173 00:10:09,840 --> 00:10:13,160 Speaker 1: you know, unlike the others, uh, they didn't start fair 174 00:10:13,240 --> 00:10:15,920 Speaker 1: Child didn't start in a garage. One of the few 175 00:10:15,960 --> 00:10:18,040 Speaker 1: things to set it apart from every other company that 176 00:10:18,080 --> 00:10:21,000 Speaker 1: ever started in Silicon Valley. They bucked the trend. Of 177 00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:22,720 Speaker 1: course at that point is not a trend, I guess, 178 00:10:23,160 --> 00:10:25,160 Speaker 1: unless you're the Braves, in which case, three games in 179 00:10:25,160 --> 00:10:27,480 Speaker 1: a row is a winning streak, alright, So sure that 180 00:10:27,559 --> 00:10:31,240 Speaker 1: was a harsh dissa. Someone who knows something about baseball. 181 00:10:31,360 --> 00:10:33,439 Speaker 1: They're they've got the highest they've got the best record 182 00:10:33,480 --> 00:10:35,360 Speaker 1: of baseball right now, So I'm it's not really a 183 00:10:35,400 --> 00:10:39,560 Speaker 1: diss okay. So moving on semiconductors. What happens with making one? 184 00:10:39,640 --> 00:10:43,000 Speaker 1: How are they made? So this is a little different 185 00:10:43,040 --> 00:10:44,840 Speaker 1: from the way they were doing it in the earliest 186 00:10:44,920 --> 00:10:47,680 Speaker 1: days at fair Child, But in general, what you have 187 00:10:47,760 --> 00:10:51,840 Speaker 1: to start with is pure silicon. It's very important that 188 00:10:51,880 --> 00:10:53,880 Speaker 1: it's as pure as possible. You wanted to get it 189 00:10:54,120 --> 00:10:58,320 Speaker 1: as close to pure as you possibly can because, uh, 190 00:10:58,679 --> 00:11:01,240 Speaker 1: you're going to be missing with this stuff in the 191 00:11:01,320 --> 00:11:05,080 Speaker 1: in the future. But you know, it's are the ways 192 00:11:05,080 --> 00:11:07,640 Speaker 1: in which it works exactly. So when you start with 193 00:11:07,679 --> 00:11:10,600 Speaker 1: a good pier base that, yeah, that that makes it possible. 194 00:11:10,640 --> 00:11:13,400 Speaker 1: Otherwise your chips are not going to work. You're you're 195 00:11:13,440 --> 00:11:16,840 Speaker 1: going to end up with a huge waste of resources. 196 00:11:17,160 --> 00:11:20,120 Speaker 1: So you grow these pier silkon crystals into kind of 197 00:11:20,200 --> 00:11:22,599 Speaker 1: kind of cylinders. Yeah. Yeah. The way it works is 198 00:11:22,640 --> 00:11:26,079 Speaker 1: you've got this big old vat of of liquid silicon 199 00:11:26,720 --> 00:11:29,720 Speaker 1: and then you dip the pure crystal in it makes 200 00:11:29,880 --> 00:11:34,040 Speaker 1: the rest of the liquid crystallize around into one crystal. 201 00:11:34,160 --> 00:11:37,280 Speaker 1: It's like one solid crystal, which is really fascinating process 202 00:11:37,320 --> 00:11:40,040 Speaker 1: by the way. Yeah, and then you you draw it 203 00:11:40,040 --> 00:11:42,920 Speaker 1: out and you've got this big old cylindrical ingot is 204 00:11:42,960 --> 00:11:46,000 Speaker 1: what they called them. And then you use a saw 205 00:11:46,280 --> 00:11:49,280 Speaker 1: usually controlled these days by a robot, but it's a 206 00:11:49,320 --> 00:11:54,720 Speaker 1: saw that cuts them the cylinder into wafers or waters 207 00:11:54,880 --> 00:11:59,200 Speaker 1: if you prefer, you know, Monty Python approach. So it's 208 00:11:59,240 --> 00:12:04,199 Speaker 1: waffer thin and you cut a series of wafers through 209 00:12:04,559 --> 00:12:09,080 Speaker 1: this ingot. Each wafer is about point seven five millimeters 210 00:12:09,080 --> 00:12:12,400 Speaker 1: thick and just under twelve inches in diameter, so about 211 00:12:12,400 --> 00:12:15,679 Speaker 1: three millimeters and you cut once. Once you cut that, 212 00:12:15,760 --> 00:12:20,080 Speaker 1: then you're ready to start the diffusion and etching process. 213 00:12:20,160 --> 00:12:23,240 Speaker 1: So let's talk about what's going well. Actually, first you 214 00:12:23,280 --> 00:12:25,320 Speaker 1: have to polish it, I should say, because you wanted 215 00:12:25,360 --> 00:12:29,040 Speaker 1: to bet with Yeah, you wanted to be as uniform 216 00:12:29,280 --> 00:12:33,000 Speaker 1: as possible, because you're gonna be again making very tiny 217 00:12:33,080 --> 00:12:35,880 Speaker 1: changes to it, particularly these days. Now again, back in 218 00:12:35,920 --> 00:12:39,680 Speaker 1: the fair Child days, you're talking about elements that were 219 00:12:39,720 --> 00:12:43,600 Speaker 1: on the micro scale. Now we're on the nano scale. 220 00:12:43,840 --> 00:12:45,960 Speaker 1: But we'll we'll talk more about why that's important in 221 00:12:46,360 --> 00:12:50,480 Speaker 1: in the next episode. So essentially, what you're doing is 222 00:12:50,520 --> 00:12:57,040 Speaker 1: you're using chemicals to give certain properties to the semiconductor 223 00:12:57,160 --> 00:13:00,120 Speaker 1: and then cut away parts that you don't want. So 224 00:13:00,200 --> 00:13:03,800 Speaker 1: there are two different types of semiconductor material. There's ND 225 00:13:03,800 --> 00:13:07,520 Speaker 1: type and there's P type, which essentially stands for negative 226 00:13:07,600 --> 00:13:11,800 Speaker 1: and positive. The negative types have extra electrons that they 227 00:13:11,840 --> 00:13:16,440 Speaker 1: can give up. The positive types have holes electron holes 228 00:13:16,480 --> 00:13:20,400 Speaker 1: that can accept electrons. This is what allows electricity to 229 00:13:20,400 --> 00:13:25,760 Speaker 1: flow through semiconductor material. So you're actually introducing small amounts 230 00:13:25,760 --> 00:13:29,640 Speaker 1: of impurities. It's called doping, and in this case, it's 231 00:13:29,679 --> 00:13:31,720 Speaker 1: not a bad thing, so you're not gonna get thrown 232 00:13:31,760 --> 00:13:34,880 Speaker 1: out of the Olympics for it, and you probably won't 233 00:13:34,920 --> 00:13:37,079 Speaker 1: go into the Olympics either. But anyway, so you're doing 234 00:13:37,120 --> 00:13:40,720 Speaker 1: this doping process, and it's imagine that you you add 235 00:13:40,720 --> 00:13:44,680 Speaker 1: in a layer of the special stuff that that dopes 236 00:13:44,760 --> 00:13:48,480 Speaker 1: your wafer, uh like ND type, we'll just say N type, 237 00:13:48,960 --> 00:13:52,960 Speaker 1: and then you coate certain parts of the wafer with 238 00:13:53,120 --> 00:13:56,640 Speaker 1: a chemical that's going to protect that layer. Then you 239 00:13:56,760 --> 00:13:59,640 Speaker 1: use a different chemical to etch away anything that was 240 00:13:59,679 --> 00:14:03,640 Speaker 1: not coded, so only the coded stuff remains whole, creating 241 00:14:03,640 --> 00:14:06,640 Speaker 1: a certain pattern on the chip or the wayfer surface 242 00:14:06,720 --> 00:14:09,760 Speaker 1: rather exactly. Then you do another coading. Maybe now it's 243 00:14:09,760 --> 00:14:13,720 Speaker 1: a P coding and again you code it again with 244 00:14:14,320 --> 00:14:18,000 Speaker 1: don't you're like twelve, It's like Cris Palette, she's just 245 00:14:18,040 --> 00:14:20,520 Speaker 1: giggling and looking at me. Yes, it's a P coding 246 00:14:21,080 --> 00:14:24,480 Speaker 1: the letter P, and then you code that with an oxide. 247 00:14:24,480 --> 00:14:28,000 Speaker 1: Again you use the chemicals to etch away all the 248 00:14:28,040 --> 00:14:31,880 Speaker 1: non relevant parts. You do this many, many, many times 249 00:14:31,960 --> 00:14:35,600 Speaker 1: in order for you to make a final uh semiconductor 250 00:14:35,720 --> 00:14:37,960 Speaker 1: chip of whatever it is that you were building. And 251 00:14:38,040 --> 00:14:40,520 Speaker 1: keep in mind this could be lots of different stuff. 252 00:14:40,560 --> 00:14:44,000 Speaker 1: Semi connected material is used in more than just microprocessors. 253 00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:47,880 Speaker 1: It's used in a lot of other basic pieces of electronics, 254 00:14:47,920 --> 00:14:50,760 Speaker 1: but we mostly think of it as microprocessors because that's 255 00:14:50,760 --> 00:14:57,360 Speaker 1: one of those things that I think everyone has some familiarity. So, uh, yeah, 256 00:14:57,400 --> 00:14:59,960 Speaker 1: the process has done several times in order to get 257 00:15:00,200 --> 00:15:03,520 Speaker 1: exactly what it is you want, and then once that's done, 258 00:15:03,520 --> 00:15:06,479 Speaker 1: then it can go into the next level of processing, 259 00:15:06,480 --> 00:15:09,640 Speaker 1: which usually involves putting in some connectors so that it 260 00:15:09,680 --> 00:15:14,280 Speaker 1: can connect to whatever it is, and then you finish 261 00:15:14,320 --> 00:15:16,680 Speaker 1: it off with whatever covers need to be placed on it, 262 00:15:16,880 --> 00:15:19,720 Speaker 1: then it gets packaged and sent off to wherever it 263 00:15:19,760 --> 00:15:23,840 Speaker 1: needs to go. So that's your basic uh step from 264 00:15:23,880 --> 00:15:26,560 Speaker 1: beginning to end. And so one thing that the fair 265 00:15:26,680 --> 00:15:29,720 Speaker 1: Child folks had come up with was this idea of 266 00:15:29,800 --> 00:15:32,560 Speaker 1: double diffusion. Now that is the process I was talking 267 00:15:32,560 --> 00:15:37,400 Speaker 1: about of introducing those impurities, that doping process, and the 268 00:15:37,440 --> 00:15:39,800 Speaker 1: way that they were doing it was cutting down on 269 00:15:39,920 --> 00:15:42,880 Speaker 1: the processing time that they would need to do. Back 270 00:15:42,920 --> 00:15:45,400 Speaker 1: in the early days, if you wanted to make a transistor, 271 00:15:46,240 --> 00:15:49,000 Speaker 1: you essentially had to do it piece by piece. You 272 00:15:49,040 --> 00:15:51,520 Speaker 1: would get a wafer and you would make one transistor 273 00:15:51,960 --> 00:15:53,720 Speaker 1: and you you know, you end up having that all 274 00:15:53,760 --> 00:15:55,840 Speaker 1: cut out and and done, then you would go back 275 00:15:55,840 --> 00:15:58,040 Speaker 1: to the wafer and make the next one. They found 276 00:15:58,040 --> 00:16:00,880 Speaker 1: a way where they could process this and makes several 277 00:16:00,920 --> 00:16:04,880 Speaker 1: transistors of an entire wafer all at once. So it 278 00:16:05,080 --> 00:16:07,760 Speaker 1: really cut down on the amount of time it took 279 00:16:07,800 --> 00:16:10,640 Speaker 1: to produce transistors, which in turn brought the price down. 280 00:16:11,040 --> 00:16:13,200 Speaker 1: This is what Gordon Moore was talking about when he 281 00:16:13,240 --> 00:16:17,120 Speaker 1: made that observation. He said, we're making improvements in manufacturing 282 00:16:17,160 --> 00:16:19,240 Speaker 1: which is making it possible for us to reduce the 283 00:16:19,280 --> 00:16:21,920 Speaker 1: price of components, which is making it possible to build 284 00:16:22,040 --> 00:16:25,760 Speaker 1: bigger components. So really, when he made that observation, it 285 00:16:25,840 --> 00:16:30,160 Speaker 1: wasn't anything necessarily about computer power or or electronics power. 286 00:16:30,560 --> 00:16:33,760 Speaker 1: It was more about about the actual right, the actual 287 00:16:33,760 --> 00:16:38,400 Speaker 1: physical pieces. And yeah, it was just ultimately all comes 288 00:16:38,440 --> 00:16:42,000 Speaker 1: down to money, which is you know, cheerful. Hey, that 289 00:16:42,080 --> 00:16:46,920 Speaker 1: being said, let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor. Alright, 290 00:16:46,960 --> 00:16:50,920 Speaker 1: so we're back. Let's talk about the actual history of 291 00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:55,080 Speaker 1: fair Child. So it was founded in nineteen seven. Six 292 00:16:55,120 --> 00:16:58,800 Speaker 1: months later, it was profitable. That's pretty impressive. I mean, 293 00:16:58,840 --> 00:17:01,640 Speaker 1: brand new company, unproven other than the fact that they 294 00:17:01,720 --> 00:17:03,920 Speaker 1: knew they had some of the smartest guys in the 295 00:17:03,960 --> 00:17:07,400 Speaker 1: industry still and also, I mean they made their first 296 00:17:07,440 --> 00:17:10,000 Speaker 1: sales to IBM um for an order of a hundred 297 00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:12,800 Speaker 1: transistors priced at a hundred and fifty bucks a pop, right, 298 00:17:12,880 --> 00:17:17,320 Speaker 1: and that was approximately five million dollars. It was it 299 00:17:17,400 --> 00:17:19,080 Speaker 1: was It was a lot. It was a bunch. Was 300 00:17:19,240 --> 00:17:20,760 Speaker 1: it was bunch. It was a bunch of dollars hundred 301 00:17:20,840 --> 00:17:24,800 Speaker 1: fifty bucks for a hundred transistor, well a hundred fifty 302 00:17:24,840 --> 00:17:27,920 Speaker 1: dollars per transistor for a hundred transistors, all to IBM 303 00:17:27,960 --> 00:17:31,000 Speaker 1: that's a good first client to have. Yeah, sure, not 304 00:17:31,119 --> 00:17:33,280 Speaker 1: too bad. Um My, my favorite part about this story 305 00:17:33,400 --> 00:17:35,600 Speaker 1: is that when they had to ship them, um, j 306 00:17:35,800 --> 00:17:38,560 Speaker 1: Last just ran out to a local supermarket and picked 307 00:17:38,600 --> 00:17:41,679 Speaker 1: up a used Brillow carton. Brillow being that brand of 308 00:17:42,240 --> 00:17:44,480 Speaker 1: scrubby sponges, right all right, you know there's sponges that 309 00:17:44,520 --> 00:17:46,720 Speaker 1: have some steel wool and soap in them. Yeah. Yeah, 310 00:17:46,760 --> 00:17:48,560 Speaker 1: And and he just picked up a used carton and 311 00:17:48,640 --> 00:17:50,679 Speaker 1: they were just like, oh, this is good for transistors 312 00:17:50,680 --> 00:17:54,440 Speaker 1: and pop Yeah, keeping in mind that, you know, these days, 313 00:17:54,520 --> 00:17:57,320 Speaker 1: we have very specific packaging for all this kind of 314 00:17:58,080 --> 00:18:01,760 Speaker 1: cages built in and like plastic that you will never 315 00:18:01,800 --> 00:18:05,200 Speaker 1: ever open without the use of some sort of chainsaw. Yeah. 316 00:18:05,320 --> 00:18:07,760 Speaker 1: I like this though. It adds a little, a little 317 00:18:07,840 --> 00:18:11,080 Speaker 1: kind of dash of whimsy to the story. Um. And 318 00:18:11,160 --> 00:18:15,400 Speaker 1: that same year, one of the engineers, Robert Noyce, developed 319 00:18:15,400 --> 00:18:19,119 Speaker 1: the monolithic integrated circuit. Now, this is the invention you 320 00:18:19,160 --> 00:18:21,760 Speaker 1: were talking about earlier in the show, Lauren, the one 321 00:18:22,200 --> 00:18:25,840 Speaker 1: that truly defines the way we use computers and electronics, 322 00:18:25,880 --> 00:18:27,960 Speaker 1: what what makes them what they are, Because it's what 323 00:18:28,160 --> 00:18:33,400 Speaker 1: allowed an entire circuit to be put upon a single 324 00:18:33,880 --> 00:18:38,040 Speaker 1: chip of of silicon. Before it was that you would 325 00:18:38,040 --> 00:18:41,359 Speaker 1: create different components and then wire them all together, which 326 00:18:41,359 --> 00:18:44,639 Speaker 1: meant that you were limited by size. Yeah, you wouldn't 327 00:18:44,640 --> 00:18:47,399 Speaker 1: be able to get too small. But this suddenly created 328 00:18:47,400 --> 00:18:50,280 Speaker 1: the possibility of miniaturization on a level that they had 329 00:18:50,320 --> 00:18:54,840 Speaker 1: never had before. However, um it did mean that, uh, 330 00:18:54,920 --> 00:18:59,639 Speaker 1: there weren't that many customers who needed this yet because 331 00:18:59,680 --> 00:19:02,560 Speaker 1: they're just wasn't a market there, right, So it was 332 00:19:02,800 --> 00:19:05,679 Speaker 1: it was a huge development and it was phenomenal and 333 00:19:05,800 --> 00:19:08,680 Speaker 1: really important in computers and electronics. But at the time 334 00:19:08,920 --> 00:19:11,280 Speaker 1: everyone's like, well, that's cool, but what does it do? 335 00:19:11,760 --> 00:19:15,200 Speaker 1: I don't want to yeah exactly, but we'll we'll understand 336 00:19:15,400 --> 00:19:18,800 Speaker 1: there's an interesting, first, really good application for it coming up. 337 00:19:19,400 --> 00:19:22,840 Speaker 1: So that he was not the only person to be 338 00:19:23,040 --> 00:19:25,639 Speaker 1: to work on the integrated circuit and come up with us. 339 00:19:25,640 --> 00:19:28,359 Speaker 1: There wasn't a separate group that came up with it 340 00:19:28,440 --> 00:19:32,960 Speaker 1: independently right led by Jack Kilby over at Texas Instruments 341 00:19:33,040 --> 00:19:35,399 Speaker 1: and UM. And the story of that one goes that 342 00:19:35,480 --> 00:19:37,960 Speaker 1: the Jack was had only been with Texas Instruments for 343 00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:41,080 Speaker 1: a couple of months and was left alone therefore at 344 00:19:41,080 --> 00:19:43,680 Speaker 1: the offices during a vacation time when everyone else had 345 00:19:43,720 --> 00:19:46,280 Speaker 1: off and just sitting around came up with this with 346 00:19:46,520 --> 00:19:49,240 Speaker 1: a very similar idea for how to um how to 347 00:19:49,920 --> 00:19:54,600 Speaker 1: add layers to a wafer before before starting to catch 348 00:19:54,640 --> 00:19:56,840 Speaker 1: out the chemical process. And I think the chemical process 349 00:19:56,880 --> 00:20:00,439 Speaker 1: is what Noise really came up with. UM but uh, 350 00:20:00,480 --> 00:20:02,280 Speaker 1: but but but but yeah, anyway, you know they would 351 00:20:02,640 --> 00:20:06,920 Speaker 1: they both applied for patents both companies, and a fair 352 00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:09,720 Speaker 1: Child would wind up winning that one really hard, partially 353 00:20:09,760 --> 00:20:13,159 Speaker 1: because because Noise had sort of expanded upon the same 354 00:20:13,400 --> 00:20:17,760 Speaker 1: concept and uh and filed a much more detailed patent. Right. So, 355 00:20:17,840 --> 00:20:20,560 Speaker 1: if you've listened to our episodes on Texas Instruments, you've 356 00:20:20,600 --> 00:20:23,000 Speaker 1: probably heard our story there where we talked about the 357 00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:28,560 Speaker 1: integrated circuit. It's interesting and not unusual to see two 358 00:20:28,800 --> 00:20:31,800 Speaker 1: different people in two different companies, not necessarily having any 359 00:20:31,800 --> 00:20:35,240 Speaker 1: connection with one another, independently come up with the same thing. 360 00:20:35,280 --> 00:20:37,800 Speaker 1: We've seen this happen again and again, and sometimes it 361 00:20:37,960 --> 00:20:40,439 Speaker 1: just kind of indicates that the time was right, like 362 00:20:41,560 --> 00:20:44,439 Speaker 1: enough of the groundwork had been laid that someone was 363 00:20:44,480 --> 00:20:46,400 Speaker 1: going to come up with it. And when you've got 364 00:20:46,440 --> 00:20:49,280 Speaker 1: that many brilliant people working on it, surely it shouldn't 365 00:20:49,280 --> 00:20:52,320 Speaker 1: come as a surprise that more than one person realized 366 00:20:52,480 --> 00:20:54,920 Speaker 1: how it was going to work. In this case, we 367 00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:58,760 Speaker 1: give the credit largely to two Noise. At least he 368 00:20:58,800 --> 00:21:02,480 Speaker 1: got the patent for it UM. In nineteen fifty nine, 369 00:21:02,840 --> 00:21:08,119 Speaker 1: Gene Herny created the first planar transistor. Now it's gonna 370 00:21:08,240 --> 00:21:10,480 Speaker 1: it's kind of complicated to talk about what exactly the 371 00:21:10,520 --> 00:21:14,800 Speaker 1: planar transistor is, but in general, the earlier transistors had 372 00:21:14,880 --> 00:21:19,440 Speaker 1: exposed junctions which made them less efficient when they were 373 00:21:19,480 --> 00:21:22,959 Speaker 1: processing electricity, when they were doing whatever it was they 374 00:21:22,960 --> 00:21:26,280 Speaker 1: were supposed to be doing. In that particular transistor, uh, 375 00:21:26,280 --> 00:21:28,680 Speaker 1: there was a lot of leakage, which meant that not 376 00:21:28,720 --> 00:21:31,040 Speaker 1: all the electrons were going where you wanted them to go, 377 00:21:31,200 --> 00:21:33,840 Speaker 1: and you had a lot of wasted power. In that case, 378 00:21:34,560 --> 00:21:38,600 Speaker 1: the planar approach meant that. And planars p l A 379 00:21:38,920 --> 00:21:41,840 Speaker 1: in a R, which was at least for a long 380 00:21:41,880 --> 00:21:43,760 Speaker 1: time I'm not sure if it still is. Was a 381 00:21:43,760 --> 00:21:48,200 Speaker 1: proprietary word owned by Fairchild. Interesting that that they've made 382 00:21:48,359 --> 00:21:51,320 Speaker 1: a good couple million bucks on licensing for Wow. I 383 00:21:51,359 --> 00:21:54,040 Speaker 1: did not know that. I didn't see that in my research. Well, 384 00:21:54,720 --> 00:21:57,119 Speaker 1: at any rate, they according to what I read the 385 00:21:57,160 --> 00:21:59,440 Speaker 1: reason The main reason they called it that was because 386 00:21:59,800 --> 00:22:02,760 Speaker 1: it ended up having these uh there were these protective 387 00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:05,480 Speaker 1: layers that were on top of these transistors, and the 388 00:22:05,520 --> 00:22:07,679 Speaker 1: conventional wisdom at the time was that you need to 389 00:22:07,720 --> 00:22:10,159 Speaker 1: remove those at the end of processing in order for 390 00:22:10,200 --> 00:22:12,560 Speaker 1: this transistor to work. There are a lot of engineers 391 00:22:12,560 --> 00:22:15,399 Speaker 1: who were of the opinion that if you were to 392 00:22:15,480 --> 00:22:19,639 Speaker 1: leave those layers in place, it wouldn't either the transistor 393 00:22:19,640 --> 00:22:22,879 Speaker 1: wouldn't work properly, it would be less efficient, or it 394 00:22:23,040 --> 00:22:26,560 Speaker 1: just would It just was a wasteful idea. That was 395 00:22:26,640 --> 00:22:31,000 Speaker 1: something that Hernie said, No, that's let's try this and 396 00:22:31,080 --> 00:22:34,479 Speaker 1: created a transistor using this approach where those layers were 397 00:22:34,520 --> 00:22:37,400 Speaker 1: left in place, and it actually created a much more 398 00:22:37,440 --> 00:22:41,879 Speaker 1: efficient transistor. And uh So, the reason I've seen of 399 00:22:41,880 --> 00:22:44,240 Speaker 1: why it was called planars because the transistor itself was 400 00:22:44,280 --> 00:22:47,160 Speaker 1: flat because those layers had not been removed. There are other, 401 00:22:47,720 --> 00:22:50,480 Speaker 1: uh exact descriptions that say that the reason why it's 402 00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:52,720 Speaker 1: called as because all the elements are within the same 403 00:22:52,760 --> 00:22:56,520 Speaker 1: plane of each other. Your wage may vary, you know. 404 00:22:57,240 --> 00:23:01,119 Speaker 1: The wacky thing about history is that different people define 405 00:23:01,119 --> 00:23:02,879 Speaker 1: it in different ways, and we just have to go 406 00:23:02,960 --> 00:23:08,000 Speaker 1: with whatever one we like. Most. So then we that 407 00:23:08,040 --> 00:23:10,880 Speaker 1: takes us up to nineteen six one, and that's when 408 00:23:11,160 --> 00:23:14,280 Speaker 1: fair Child Semi Conductor got that patent on the monolithic 409 00:23:14,400 --> 00:23:17,760 Speaker 1: integrated circuit. When I hear monolithic integrade circuit, I just 410 00:23:17,800 --> 00:23:20,800 Speaker 1: imagine it must have been enormous. That's a model like 411 00:23:22,400 --> 00:23:26,399 Speaker 1: the thing. Yes, exactly, that's the second biggest integrated circuit 412 00:23:26,440 --> 00:23:30,159 Speaker 1: have ever seen. Anyway, the first integrated circuit that was 413 00:23:30,240 --> 00:23:35,080 Speaker 1: commercially available from fair Child was the Resistor Transistor Logic 414 00:23:35,280 --> 00:23:39,719 Speaker 1: product also known as RTL. So, uh, you're gonna hear 415 00:23:39,760 --> 00:23:41,080 Speaker 1: us talk about a lot of these terms. We're not 416 00:23:41,080 --> 00:23:42,880 Speaker 1: gonna go into a lot of detail because every single 417 00:23:42,880 --> 00:23:47,080 Speaker 1: one of these gets really really technical. But in any rate, 418 00:23:47,160 --> 00:23:50,679 Speaker 1: this is what was what leading to true managerization, allowing 419 00:23:50,720 --> 00:23:52,639 Speaker 1: these computers and like tries to come in those smaller 420 00:23:52,680 --> 00:23:56,720 Speaker 1: form factors. Now, those first integrated circuits were hundred twenty 421 00:23:56,760 --> 00:24:00,480 Speaker 1: dollars per chip. It's pretty expensive. And again and there 422 00:24:00,520 --> 00:24:03,679 Speaker 1: weren't that many customers out there that had need for 423 00:24:03,720 --> 00:24:08,760 Speaker 1: it except for one big one. So nineteen what industry 424 00:24:08,880 --> 00:24:13,000 Speaker 1: really had to conserve on how much space there stuff 425 00:24:13,119 --> 00:24:16,920 Speaker 1: took up? Could that be the space industry could be 426 00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:20,280 Speaker 1: you know, it's so ironic that there's nothing out there 427 00:24:20,359 --> 00:24:24,400 Speaker 1: but space, and yet they needed to conserve space. Can 428 00:24:24,440 --> 00:24:27,639 Speaker 1: you guys hear me shaking my hat at him? So, yeah, 429 00:24:27,760 --> 00:24:31,960 Speaker 1: the obviously when you're designing a space craft, some sort 430 00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:38,679 Speaker 1: of space capsule, every single tiny Yeah, you gotta have 431 00:24:38,800 --> 00:24:41,600 Speaker 1: enough room for if it's a manned spacecraft, you have 432 00:24:41,640 --> 00:24:43,520 Speaker 1: to have enough room for the astronauts to move around 433 00:24:43,520 --> 00:24:45,920 Speaker 1: and do whatever it is they need to do. And 434 00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:50,840 Speaker 1: so conserving that was of the highest level of importance. 435 00:24:50,960 --> 00:24:55,320 Speaker 1: So the space industry, NASA really relied heavily on fair 436 00:24:55,400 --> 00:24:58,600 Speaker 1: Child Semiconductor in those early days. In fact, some of 437 00:24:58,640 --> 00:25:00,960 Speaker 1: the some of the component it's that fair Child would 438 00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:03,199 Speaker 1: make would be used in the Apollo program for the 439 00:25:03,240 --> 00:25:07,640 Speaker 1: guidance systems. Very important stuff. Uh. In nineteen sixty two, 440 00:25:07,680 --> 00:25:11,400 Speaker 1: fair Child opened up a production facility in Maine, south Portland, 441 00:25:11,400 --> 00:25:15,120 Speaker 1: specifically yep, south Portland that would become important. That's uh 442 00:25:15,480 --> 00:25:17,879 Speaker 1: spoiler alert. This will come in and play in the 443 00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:20,960 Speaker 1: second part of our series. That's where the headquarters are now, 444 00:25:21,320 --> 00:25:24,560 Speaker 1: South Portland, Maine. That that facility was open in sixty 445 00:25:24,560 --> 00:25:28,920 Speaker 1: two and the transistors produced there were intended mostly for radios, 446 00:25:28,960 --> 00:25:32,719 Speaker 1: and oscilloscopes and a few other uh instruments, you know, 447 00:25:32,840 --> 00:25:37,800 Speaker 1: electronic instruments. In sixty three they produced the resistor transistor 448 00:25:37,840 --> 00:25:41,879 Speaker 1: logic dual gate device, the RTL dual gate device, the 449 00:25:41,880 --> 00:25:46,439 Speaker 1: first to incorporate buried layer isolation technology, which are the 450 00:25:46,480 --> 00:25:48,720 Speaker 1: Planer resistors. This was the first time they had actually 451 00:25:48,760 --> 00:25:52,760 Speaker 1: incorporated that approach that Noise had had really and Hernie 452 00:25:52,800 --> 00:25:57,400 Speaker 1: had pioneered. And now this was actually control product. So 453 00:25:57,840 --> 00:25:59,800 Speaker 1: they were you know, you can think of those earlier 454 00:25:59,840 --> 00:26:02,080 Speaker 1: to discoveries. They obviously took a couple of years to 455 00:26:02,280 --> 00:26:05,840 Speaker 1: get worked into the manufacturing process, and those those one 456 00:26:05,920 --> 00:26:08,640 Speaker 1: up with with Apollo, didn't they Yeah, yeah, they sure did. 457 00:26:08,720 --> 00:26:10,760 Speaker 1: So these are the ones that the Apollo program would 458 00:26:10,760 --> 00:26:15,640 Speaker 1: rely on heavily for multiple systems, mainly guidance. In sixty 459 00:26:15,680 --> 00:26:19,760 Speaker 1: four they created the n P N Planer power transistor, 460 00:26:20,320 --> 00:26:22,919 Speaker 1: and that was kind of like you can imagine it 461 00:26:22,960 --> 00:26:25,960 Speaker 1: like a sandwich, all right, So the the top piece 462 00:26:25,960 --> 00:26:29,640 Speaker 1: of bread on your sin which is really negative, it's 463 00:26:29,680 --> 00:26:31,800 Speaker 1: just a negative piece of bread. This is the N 464 00:26:31,880 --> 00:26:35,840 Speaker 1: type silicon. Then you would have the delicious center of 465 00:26:35,880 --> 00:26:38,440 Speaker 1: your sandwich, which in my case would probably be peanut 466 00:26:38,480 --> 00:26:40,720 Speaker 1: butter and jelly because I'm you know, a man of sophistication. 467 00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:45,639 Speaker 1: That would be p types. That's very positive positive silicon. 468 00:26:45,960 --> 00:26:48,800 Speaker 1: Then the bottom layer bread once again from that same 469 00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:51,960 Speaker 1: negative loaf that you received earlier. It's the other end 470 00:26:52,040 --> 00:26:56,360 Speaker 1: type and it used thin film resistors. This is important 471 00:26:56,359 --> 00:27:00,600 Speaker 1: because previous versions of integrated circuits actually used little tiny 472 00:27:00,600 --> 00:27:04,000 Speaker 1: metal connectors to connect the various layers right right, those 473 00:27:04,040 --> 00:27:06,439 Speaker 1: were the film of This was than enough that it 474 00:27:06,440 --> 00:27:09,200 Speaker 1: would let the electrons just pass through it directly rather 475 00:27:09,200 --> 00:27:12,359 Speaker 1: than needing those they have those connectors exactly. It made 476 00:27:12,400 --> 00:27:16,119 Speaker 1: it simpler to to produce these types of transistors. And 477 00:27:16,160 --> 00:27:19,600 Speaker 1: again according to Moore's law, we would find these developments 478 00:27:19,640 --> 00:27:23,040 Speaker 1: making it more efficient cheaper to produce. That's what it 479 00:27:23,160 --> 00:27:27,000 Speaker 1: allowed us to create more complex electronics using these components, 480 00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:30,840 Speaker 1: and to make the components themselves more complex. So sixty 481 00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:35,120 Speaker 1: five that's when Fairchild produces the operational amplifier or pp amp. 482 00:27:36,160 --> 00:27:40,480 Speaker 1: So that's essentially what it sounds like. An amplifier amplify something. 483 00:27:40,520 --> 00:27:43,720 Speaker 1: It makes something bigger in this case is voltage. So 484 00:27:43,760 --> 00:27:46,159 Speaker 1: what it would do is take the incoming voltage and 485 00:27:46,200 --> 00:27:50,000 Speaker 1: amplify the potential difference from the input terminals significantly, remembering 486 00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:53,960 Speaker 1: the voltage is a measurement of the difference in electric potential. 487 00:27:55,760 --> 00:27:58,280 Speaker 1: Was also the year in which More actually published that 488 00:27:58,280 --> 00:28:02,680 Speaker 1: that article um eloquently titled Cramming more components onto integrated circuits, 489 00:28:02,720 --> 00:28:06,640 Speaker 1: in which Moore's observation or law was laid out. Yep, yep, 490 00:28:06,760 --> 00:28:09,880 Speaker 1: and boy, Moore's law. That's one of those things that 491 00:28:10,280 --> 00:28:13,760 Speaker 1: even today you have people saying any day now is 492 00:28:13,760 --> 00:28:15,439 Speaker 1: going to be the last day for Moore's law, and 493 00:28:15,480 --> 00:28:18,200 Speaker 1: the engineers say, I will take you up on that challenge, 494 00:28:19,880 --> 00:28:23,240 Speaker 1: and so yes, six six, let's let's move on. Let's 495 00:28:23,320 --> 00:28:26,520 Speaker 1: keep going, because you know fair Child kept going, so 496 00:28:26,560 --> 00:28:30,040 Speaker 1: we will to sixty six. They created the first standard 497 00:28:30,080 --> 00:28:34,520 Speaker 1: transistor transistor logic or t t L product, which was 498 00:28:34,560 --> 00:28:39,560 Speaker 1: a quad to put uh two input negated and gait 499 00:28:39,760 --> 00:28:42,640 Speaker 1: or nand in A and D. So that's a logic 500 00:28:42,680 --> 00:28:46,040 Speaker 1: gate that creates a false output only if all inputs 501 00:28:46,080 --> 00:28:48,880 Speaker 1: are true. So in binary terms, if you put if 502 00:28:48,920 --> 00:28:52,320 Speaker 1: you put in two one's you get a zero. Any 503 00:28:52,360 --> 00:28:56,120 Speaker 1: other input combination results in a one. So if you 504 00:28:56,160 --> 00:28:58,440 Speaker 1: get to zeros, it comes out of one one one 505 00:28:58,440 --> 00:29:00,760 Speaker 1: and one zero comes out of one one zero one 506 00:29:00,760 --> 00:29:03,480 Speaker 1: one comes out as one. I know this gets confusing, 507 00:29:03,840 --> 00:29:06,400 Speaker 1: but you have to you do essentially think like with 508 00:29:06,520 --> 00:29:09,720 Speaker 1: two switches, you have four potential combinations, even though you 509 00:29:09,720 --> 00:29:13,160 Speaker 1: would mostly think, well, one's offen, one's on. Yeah, but 510 00:29:13,400 --> 00:29:18,000 Speaker 1: it's important to designate that off on and on off 511 00:29:18,320 --> 00:29:22,640 Speaker 1: are different in the sense of binary. Me getting on 512 00:29:22,720 --> 00:29:26,680 Speaker 1: my binary soapbox which only has two sides. It's not 513 00:29:26,720 --> 00:29:30,240 Speaker 1: really a box, I guess. Alright. So nineteen seven, fair 514 00:29:30,320 --> 00:29:34,200 Speaker 1: Child introduces the new op amp with temperature compensation and 515 00:29:34,240 --> 00:29:38,760 Speaker 1: metal oxide silicon capacitor or MOSS m o S metal 516 00:29:38,760 --> 00:29:44,200 Speaker 1: oxide silicon. We're gonna into a lot of initialisms and 517 00:29:44,360 --> 00:29:48,680 Speaker 1: some acronyms than thank you, thank you, Twitter listener, um 518 00:29:49,440 --> 00:29:51,280 Speaker 1: name I don't have right now in front of us, 519 00:29:51,520 --> 00:29:54,840 Speaker 1: who corrected? Ut, Yeah, I do that all the being snarky, 520 00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:57,400 Speaker 1: but yeah, I actually really appreciate it. No, I really 521 00:29:57,400 --> 00:30:00,440 Speaker 1: do too. I am that guy. I'm the who makes 522 00:30:00,480 --> 00:30:04,040 Speaker 1: those corrections, So I cannot I cannot criticize others for 523 00:30:04,120 --> 00:30:06,080 Speaker 1: doing the same to me, because I do that to 524 00:30:06,160 --> 00:30:09,160 Speaker 1: other people. But yes. In sixty eight, Gordon Moore and 525 00:30:09,280 --> 00:30:13,760 Speaker 1: Robert Noyce left the company. They leave fair Child. Now 526 00:30:13,800 --> 00:30:17,520 Speaker 1: see the fair Child Camera and Instruments. They were kind 527 00:30:17,560 --> 00:30:20,640 Speaker 1: of what well, fair Child semi Conductor was part of 528 00:30:20,640 --> 00:30:23,680 Speaker 1: this company. The people over at fair Child Camera and 529 00:30:23,720 --> 00:30:29,640 Speaker 1: Instruments were sometimes a little hands when it came to, uh, 530 00:30:29,840 --> 00:30:32,720 Speaker 1: the management style. Like they would they would sit there 531 00:30:32,720 --> 00:30:36,440 Speaker 1: and override certain things that the engineers thought were really important. 532 00:30:36,920 --> 00:30:42,800 Speaker 1: And so they, the founders sometimes referred to as fair Children, 533 00:30:43,920 --> 00:30:47,400 Speaker 1: became less enchanted with the company they had helped create, 534 00:30:47,640 --> 00:30:50,880 Speaker 1: and one by one or sometimes sometimes more than one 535 00:30:50,920 --> 00:30:53,840 Speaker 1: by one, they left to go and either work for 536 00:30:53,880 --> 00:30:56,600 Speaker 1: someone else or to found their own companies. Right in 537 00:30:56,600 --> 00:31:00,880 Speaker 1: this case, more and noise left to found something called Intel. Yeah, yeah, 538 00:31:01,640 --> 00:31:04,880 Speaker 1: a little company get called Intel. Yeah, so they which 539 00:31:04,920 --> 00:31:06,240 Speaker 1: is you know, you sit there and you think about 540 00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:10,160 Speaker 1: this is a pretty interesting progression. First they worked for Shockley, 541 00:31:10,240 --> 00:31:13,520 Speaker 1: the one of the inventors of the transistor. Then they 542 00:31:13,560 --> 00:31:16,240 Speaker 1: went on to found fair Child Semiconductor, and now they 543 00:31:16,400 --> 00:31:19,000 Speaker 1: they're leaving again to found Intel. We'll talk about some 544 00:31:19,040 --> 00:31:22,200 Speaker 1: of the other companies that were founded by fair Children 545 00:31:22,240 --> 00:31:25,680 Speaker 1: as well. That will come into play and later on. Uh. Meanwhile, 546 00:31:26,520 --> 00:31:30,680 Speaker 1: fair Child Semiconductor hired away a guy named c. Lester Hogan, 547 00:31:31,040 --> 00:31:34,440 Speaker 1: who was formerly of Motorola's semiconductor business, to become the 548 00:31:34,480 --> 00:31:38,239 Speaker 1: head of fair Child Semiconductor. And Hogan did something that 549 00:31:38,280 --> 00:31:43,320 Speaker 1: made him extremely unpopular at Motorola and very popular, uh 550 00:31:43,400 --> 00:31:46,280 Speaker 1: at fair Child Camera, but not not so not necessarily 551 00:31:46,320 --> 00:31:50,560 Speaker 1: so much at fair Child Semiconductor. He decided to cannibalize 552 00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:54,920 Speaker 1: his old division at Motorola, and he brought on lots 553 00:31:54,920 --> 00:31:57,760 Speaker 1: and lots of managers some would say around a hundred 554 00:31:57,800 --> 00:32:02,080 Speaker 1: managers from Motorola, but he also along seven executives to 555 00:32:02,200 --> 00:32:05,600 Speaker 1: become the new management of fair Child semi Conductor. They 556 00:32:05,680 --> 00:32:09,560 Speaker 1: essentially wiped out the existing management of fair Child and 557 00:32:09,600 --> 00:32:14,400 Speaker 1: replaced them. Right now, those um, those seven executives from 558 00:32:14,400 --> 00:32:17,960 Speaker 1: Motorola had a their own nickname. You had the traitors 559 00:32:18,040 --> 00:32:21,440 Speaker 1: eight who made up the original fair Child Semiconductor group. 560 00:32:22,320 --> 00:32:26,719 Speaker 1: The seven executives were called Hogan's heroes. Hogan's heroes, that's right. 561 00:32:26,760 --> 00:32:28,280 Speaker 1: I did read about that, and they went on to 562 00:32:28,480 --> 00:32:32,320 Speaker 1: star in a great television series. I don't think that's true. No, 563 00:32:33,640 --> 00:32:36,960 Speaker 1: but Motorola did sue fair Child for damages due to 564 00:32:37,120 --> 00:32:39,720 Speaker 1: all of this. UM. I think the final outcome of 565 00:32:39,760 --> 00:32:42,200 Speaker 1: that case was that the court said, like, well, it 566 00:32:42,320 --> 00:32:46,680 Speaker 1: didn't help them that much if if they had any wrongdoing. Yeah, 567 00:32:46,840 --> 00:32:50,000 Speaker 1: this is that was like the biggest backhanded win of 568 00:32:50,120 --> 00:32:52,640 Speaker 1: all time, right, or it's very similar to something that 569 00:32:52,680 --> 00:32:56,760 Speaker 1: happened in the Apple Samsung patent disputes. A judge ended 570 00:32:56,880 --> 00:33:00,800 Speaker 1: up looking at this case that Motorola brought again fair Child, 571 00:33:01,120 --> 00:33:05,920 Speaker 1: saying that fair Child had had essentially uh completely butchered 572 00:33:06,040 --> 00:33:09,880 Speaker 1: Motorola semiconductor business. They kind of doomed it by taking 573 00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:12,520 Speaker 1: all the talent. And furthermore, I had had like stolen 574 00:33:12,560 --> 00:33:16,600 Speaker 1: some trade secrets by by lieu of of exactly human people. 575 00:33:16,800 --> 00:33:19,840 Speaker 1: The people who were developing the products of Motorola had 576 00:33:19,880 --> 00:33:23,200 Speaker 1: in their heads the information that was important to Motorola success, 577 00:33:23,200 --> 00:33:25,600 Speaker 1: and these were trade secrets, and therefore fair Child had 578 00:33:25,640 --> 00:33:29,720 Speaker 1: stolen trade secrets in this process. And initially there was 579 00:33:29,760 --> 00:33:32,560 Speaker 1: a ten percent drop in stock price at Motorola and 580 00:33:32,600 --> 00:33:36,520 Speaker 1: a nineteen percent increase at fair Child. But this lawsuit 581 00:33:36,600 --> 00:33:39,040 Speaker 1: took years to play out, right, And by the end 582 00:33:39,040 --> 00:33:41,400 Speaker 1: of it, the judge said, you know, I'm looking at 583 00:33:41,400 --> 00:33:45,000 Speaker 1: fair Child's numbers and this has not done them any 584 00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:47,120 Speaker 1: good at all. So I can't see how you can 585 00:33:47,160 --> 00:33:50,360 Speaker 1: say that this is uh, this the fair Child was 586 00:33:50,400 --> 00:33:52,680 Speaker 1: doing the story to good advantage, because if they that's 587 00:33:52,720 --> 00:33:55,160 Speaker 1: what their intent was, it sure hasn't played out that way. 588 00:33:55,720 --> 00:34:00,960 Speaker 1: Fair Child was like, yeah, this is a that was 589 00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:03,680 Speaker 1: a huge slap in the face for both companies at 590 00:34:03,680 --> 00:34:07,960 Speaker 1: the same time Justice nineteen sixty nine, fair Child builds 591 00:34:07,960 --> 00:34:12,000 Speaker 1: a semi conductor plant on Navajo Reservation Territory in Shipwrock 592 00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:15,080 Speaker 1: in New Mexico, which will become important later. Yeah, it's 593 00:34:15,120 --> 00:34:19,160 Speaker 1: a tough story. So nineteen seventy three, fair Child tries 594 00:34:19,200 --> 00:34:22,439 Speaker 1: out a new technique creating integrated circuit transistors. It's called 595 00:34:22,480 --> 00:34:25,840 Speaker 1: isoplane AR two, and that actually lets them reduce the 596 00:34:25,880 --> 00:34:29,440 Speaker 1: size of transistors by about seventy percent while keeping the 597 00:34:29,480 --> 00:34:32,399 Speaker 1: power consumption at the same more or less the same level. 598 00:34:32,840 --> 00:34:35,240 Speaker 1: That's also the year when we actually got that judgment 599 00:34:35,320 --> 00:34:40,160 Speaker 1: against Motorola Um. Nineteen seventy four was when Hogan was 600 00:34:40,280 --> 00:34:43,040 Speaker 1: dismissed as president of fair Child. He remained the vice 601 00:34:43,120 --> 00:34:45,759 Speaker 1: chairman at the time, and the company starts to have 602 00:34:45,960 --> 00:34:49,359 Speaker 1: rounds of layoffs. They this was a point where they 603 00:34:49,360 --> 00:34:54,240 Speaker 1: started talking about fair Child Semiconductor having a real problem 604 00:34:54,280 --> 00:34:58,080 Speaker 1: with management and mismanagement. Of the company, and some of 605 00:34:58,080 --> 00:35:00,480 Speaker 1: that was due to the executive some of it was 606 00:35:00,560 --> 00:35:03,279 Speaker 1: due to the board of directors or or fair Child 607 00:35:03,360 --> 00:35:07,640 Speaker 1: camera to be perfectly blunt. So Hogan, who had been 608 00:35:07,800 --> 00:35:10,400 Speaker 1: this this sort of golden Child and you know, the 609 00:35:10,480 --> 00:35:14,640 Speaker 1: center of this huge debate for several years, is now 610 00:35:14,680 --> 00:35:19,200 Speaker 1: on the Olts. He's no longer president. Was when a 611 00:35:19,320 --> 00:35:23,920 Speaker 1: really controversial thing happened back at that that plant that 612 00:35:23,960 --> 00:35:26,920 Speaker 1: was on Navajo Reservation territory. Um, there was a there 613 00:35:26,920 --> 00:35:31,320 Speaker 1: was an armed protest there. Yeah, twenty Navajo protesters, armed 614 00:35:31,480 --> 00:35:35,640 Speaker 1: Navajo protesters from the American Indian Movement took the plant 615 00:35:35,640 --> 00:35:38,640 Speaker 1: by force, demanding better working conditions. And they also had 616 00:35:38,719 --> 00:35:42,280 Speaker 1: demands that didn't have anything to do with fair Child Semiconductor. 617 00:35:42,320 --> 00:35:44,080 Speaker 1: It was more like about the plant. It was just 618 00:35:44,360 --> 00:35:48,279 Speaker 1: a general plea to to really the United States, right, Yeah, 619 00:35:48,280 --> 00:35:51,680 Speaker 1: it was to bring attention to, uh, the state of 620 00:35:51,719 --> 00:35:56,400 Speaker 1: affairs that Native Americans were living under in reservations across 621 00:35:56,440 --> 00:35:59,440 Speaker 1: the United States. It's saying, we want attention brought, we 622 00:35:59,480 --> 00:36:02,520 Speaker 1: want better living conditions. So really they were using the 623 00:36:03,160 --> 00:36:06,640 Speaker 1: plant as saw their platform to get this attention. They 624 00:36:06,680 --> 00:36:12,360 Speaker 1: held it for eight days under armed force and eventually 625 00:36:12,440 --> 00:36:17,120 Speaker 1: gave themselves up peacefully. Uh. Fair Child's response once this 626 00:36:17,239 --> 00:36:20,160 Speaker 1: was over was to shut down that plant entirely and 627 00:36:20,200 --> 00:36:23,480 Speaker 1: they just left. It's now an abandoned building, or at 628 00:36:23,520 --> 00:36:25,919 Speaker 1: least it was the last I saw from the last 629 00:36:25,920 --> 00:36:27,799 Speaker 1: report I read, which I think was written in two 630 00:36:27,800 --> 00:36:30,279 Speaker 1: thousand eight or two thousand nine, so it could be 631 00:36:30,320 --> 00:36:34,720 Speaker 1: something different now. But the story is pretty grim because 632 00:36:35,520 --> 00:36:40,120 Speaker 1: while I think everyone at fair Child had maybe not 633 00:36:40,200 --> 00:36:43,120 Speaker 1: the most honorable of intentions, but you know, they wanted 634 00:36:43,160 --> 00:36:46,120 Speaker 1: to They wanted to build this this facility here, partially 635 00:36:46,120 --> 00:36:48,160 Speaker 1: because they could get really cheap labor, but it would 636 00:36:48,160 --> 00:36:51,480 Speaker 1: mean that they could help this community. They it seemed 637 00:36:51,480 --> 00:36:54,239 Speaker 1: to me like they had that interest at heart, that 638 00:36:54,280 --> 00:36:56,440 Speaker 1: they really did want to to take it not just 639 00:36:56,520 --> 00:36:59,120 Speaker 1: take advantage of people, but to help a community. Sure, 640 00:36:59,280 --> 00:37:02,120 Speaker 1: although it was a very important protest to go on, 641 00:37:02,200 --> 00:37:04,839 Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, I mean, this this was You could 642 00:37:04,920 --> 00:37:07,200 Speaker 1: argue about whether or not it was done in the 643 00:37:07,239 --> 00:37:10,560 Speaker 1: best way, but it was certainly this was an error 644 00:37:11,320 --> 00:37:14,000 Speaker 1: part of that human rights movement that was that was 645 00:37:14,280 --> 00:37:17,480 Speaker 1: transitioning from the nineteen sixties on. It was it was 646 00:37:17,520 --> 00:37:21,120 Speaker 1: critical for all of that. Although right, yeah, you know, 647 00:37:21,160 --> 00:37:22,960 Speaker 1: you can you can argue about whether or not it 648 00:37:23,080 --> 00:37:25,120 Speaker 1: was the right way to go, but yeah, it was 649 00:37:25,120 --> 00:37:28,280 Speaker 1: a certain point when people are desperate. Yeah, yeah, there 650 00:37:28,320 --> 00:37:30,560 Speaker 1: there was a point where they were feeling like there 651 00:37:30,600 --> 00:37:32,600 Speaker 1: was no one listening and this was a way to 652 00:37:32,640 --> 00:37:35,279 Speaker 1: make the world listen. So that kind of wraps up 653 00:37:35,280 --> 00:37:38,959 Speaker 1: our first episode. This this this pivotal moment when fair 654 00:37:39,080 --> 00:37:45,799 Speaker 1: Child has this this very public, very violent or potentially 655 00:37:45,880 --> 00:37:50,440 Speaker 1: violent moment, and they're they're really in the moment. The 656 00:37:50,480 --> 00:37:53,440 Speaker 1: company itself is in in this sort of chaotic transition 657 00:37:53,520 --> 00:37:59,120 Speaker 1: where they they've undergone changes in in their executive leadership. 658 00:37:59,400 --> 00:38:02,320 Speaker 1: We'll talk more or about what happened in the years 659 00:38:02,400 --> 00:38:05,759 Speaker 1: since nine in our next episode. Guys, if you have 660 00:38:05,800 --> 00:38:08,440 Speaker 1: any suggestions for future episodes of tech Stuff, whether it's 661 00:38:08,440 --> 00:38:11,120 Speaker 1: a company, it's a specific kind of technology, maybe it's 662 00:38:11,160 --> 00:38:14,560 Speaker 1: just a trend in technology, let us know. Send us 663 00:38:14,560 --> 00:38:17,560 Speaker 1: an email our addresses tech stuff at Discovery dot com, 664 00:38:17,640 --> 00:38:20,000 Speaker 1: or drop us a line on Facebook or Twitter. You'll 665 00:38:20,040 --> 00:38:23,000 Speaker 1: find our handle is tech Stuff hs W and Lauren 666 00:38:23,040 --> 00:38:28,279 Speaker 1: and I will talk to you again really soon for 667 00:38:28,360 --> 00:38:30,680 Speaker 1: more on this and thousands of other topics. Is it 668 00:38:30,760 --> 00:38:38,239 Speaker 1: how staff works dot Com