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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.

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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with

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Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello everyone,

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Speaker 1: welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Pallette and

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Speaker 1: I am an editor at how stuff works dot com.

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Speaker 1: Sitting across from me, as always his senior writer, Jonathan Strickland.

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Speaker 1: The stars at night shine big and bright. So this

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Speaker 1: is going to be part two. It was almost part

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Speaker 1: one of the history of Texas Instrument but thank goodness

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Speaker 1: for the undo button because our producer deleted our first episode.

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Speaker 1: And then yes, but we have to share that because

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Speaker 1: we must shame him that, and and and we're still

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Speaker 1: calming down. The breathing is returning, like, oh, we don't

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Speaker 1: have to redo that, alright, So yes, part two of

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Speaker 1: the History of Texas Instruments. Now, you may remember that

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Speaker 1: in our last episode and the last episode of tech Stuff,

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Speaker 1: we left off where Texas Instruments had gone in D space.

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Speaker 1: I think yeah, around around the time also when when

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Speaker 1: Jack Kilby who uh was, was forced to work while

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Speaker 1: everyone else was taking a break because he hadn't been

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Speaker 1: with a company very long and had a crude vacation time,

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Speaker 1: just fooling around the office and decided to come up

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Speaker 1: with the integrated circuit. No big deal, just something he

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Speaker 1: did on everyone else's vacation show. You guys, you will

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Speaker 1: go to Hawaii. Wouldn't make an integrated circuit get more

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Speaker 1: rewards than all of you put together? And he did?

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Speaker 1: Um didn't, well maybe not put together. No, he didn't needn't.

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Speaker 1: He doesn't seem like the kind of person who would

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Speaker 1: do that. But in nine t I came out with

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Speaker 1: the first commercial integrated circuit. Uh. Basically, you know it

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Speaker 1: was commercialized the product, right, the one was clearly just

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Speaker 1: a prototype, just as the transistor that Bell Labs made,

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Speaker 1: uh like a decade earlier was to prototype more than

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Speaker 1: a decade earlier. Yes, so they're they're starting to come

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Speaker 1: on the market. And again something we talked about not

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Speaker 1: too terribly long ago on tech stuff and something we

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Speaker 1: have a nifty needo article about the first gallium arsenide

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Speaker 1: solar cells were produced. Um. This is a period of

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Speaker 1: intense development. Again, we're talking post war United States. There's

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Speaker 1: a lot going on in in industry. Space race is

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Speaker 1: starting to yep yep um, and there's a lot going

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Speaker 1: on the company is uh we were we were talking

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Speaker 1: about Mr. Haggarty, who had been a lieutenant in the

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Speaker 1: United States Military who came on board after working with

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Speaker 1: the company as a a manager for procurement, came on

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Speaker 1: board and joined Texas Instruments. UH. He ended up being

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Speaker 1: one of the company's very important leaders, and he came

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Speaker 1: up with the objective strategies and tactics approach. UM. This

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Speaker 1: is basically the kind of UH, you know, finding ways

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Speaker 1: to get the semiconductor tech achnology that they had developed

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Speaker 1: into all kinds of electronics and computing products. UM and

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Speaker 1: you know, there were companies in Japan taking advantage of it.

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Speaker 1: You might have heard of a couple of these guys,

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Speaker 1: I don't know, um Mitsubishi, Sony, Canon, IBM Japan, and Furukawa,

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Speaker 1: which was the parent company of Fujitsu. UM And basically

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Speaker 1: t I became a supplier for these companies during this

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Speaker 1: period in the early nineteen sixties, UM and UH you know,

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Speaker 1: they they talked about the possibility in January of nineteen

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Speaker 1: sixty four, working with the Japanese government of UH coming

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Speaker 1: up with a subsidiary of t I. It based in

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Speaker 1: Japan itself. Um and basically they you know, they took

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Speaker 1: him a little while, but they worked that out. UM.

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Speaker 1: And uh, you know in the in the nineteen sixties,

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Speaker 1: you know, this is when t I was an industry

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Speaker 1: leader and semi conductors and circuits. UM. They were supplying

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Speaker 1: companies all over the world and they were developing international subsidiaries. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: At that point, again, you wouldn't necessarily be owning a

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Speaker 1: product that says Texas Instruments. You would be owning products

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Speaker 1: that had lots of texture Texas Instruments components inside them.

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Speaker 1: Because apart from the transistor radio that really helped Texas

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Speaker 1: Instrument get a foothold in this industry. I mean that

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Speaker 1: that demonstrated the power of the transistor. Apart from that,

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Speaker 1: they really had not invested in the consumer electronics market

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Speaker 1: at all. That just wasn't their focus. They were focused

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Speaker 1: on corporate electronics. So they're electronic components. Yeah, sorry, I

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Speaker 1: didn't mean their B two B if you will with

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Speaker 1: you know, business to business. So they are they are

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Speaker 1: an O E M manufacturer. They give the the parts

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Speaker 1: to the guys who make the other stuff that you

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Speaker 1: buy off the shelf. They make the other stuff possible. Yes,

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Speaker 1: that's a sky But actually B A s F does

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Speaker 1: that kind of thing to so, um, they really do well.

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Speaker 1: I mean, that's your Thingum, So, where where are you

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Speaker 1: on your timeline? Nineteen sixty seven is about where I'm at. Okay,

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Speaker 1: So in nineteen sixties seven, Texas Instruments went and invented

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Speaker 1: the first handheld calculator. Yeah. Um, if you haven't ever

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Speaker 1: been to t i's website t I dot com, you

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Speaker 1: really should go and check out the interactive timeline because

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Speaker 1: that's that's where I've gotten a lot of my information.

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Speaker 1: But they actually have a picture of this thing. It

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Speaker 1: looks like, Um, if you've ever seen the old style

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Speaker 1: keyboard with a detachable number pad, this sucker is huge.

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Speaker 1: It's pretty enormous, but but still is small compared to

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Speaker 1: the calculating and adding machines that were popular at the time.

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Speaker 1: And you gotta remember that before the integrated circuit, before

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Speaker 1: the transistor, calculators were all mechanical devices. Yeah, you know,

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Speaker 1: these were mechanically based calculators, and so the transistor in

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Speaker 1: the integrade circuit really led to the electric calculator. So

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Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty seven, Texas Instruments, Uh, they demonstrate the

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Speaker 1: first handheld calculator. It's not meant for uh consumers yet.

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Speaker 1: This was really again another prototype and it was able

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Speaker 1: to do addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division and that's it.

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Speaker 1: And it had eighteen keys at a visual output that

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Speaker 1: displayed up to twelve decimal lights. What Yeah, twelve decimal

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Speaker 1: digits all the way up to that um which, when

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Speaker 1: you think about it at that time, extremely impressive. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I mean this is in a way this is the

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Speaker 1: beginning of the electronic computer industry as well. I mean

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Speaker 1: there are other developments going on in various other companies,

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Speaker 1: all at the same time, but this is leading the

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Speaker 1: way to the consumer computer market. Developments like this really

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Speaker 1: were very instrumental in that. Now in nineteen seventy one, oh,

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Speaker 1: you have some more information between and just even Jack

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Speaker 1: Kilby received the nineteen sixty nine National Medal of Science

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Speaker 1: from President Richard M. Nixon on February friends. So just

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Speaker 1: just a note, I tracked the Jack Kilby Express when

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Speaker 1: I was going well. In nineteen seventy one, Texas Instruments

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Speaker 1: develops the single chip microcomputer for calculators, which means that

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Speaker 1: they've now reduced the circuitry, the size of the circuitry,

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Speaker 1: the miniaturization process has gotten to the point where they

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Speaker 1: can put everything that a calculator needs to be able

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Speaker 1: to perform calculating functions on a single chip. Now, this,

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Speaker 1: this coincides with this is like a demonstration of what

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Speaker 1: Gordon Moore had said just a few years ago. Now,

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Speaker 1: Gordon Moore, as you may remember, was one of the

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Speaker 1: co founders of Intel, Yes, and he had come up

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Speaker 1: with this observation that we now call Moore's law. But

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Speaker 1: truly it is an observation that the number of discrete

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Speaker 1: elements on a UH on a given sized chip of

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Speaker 1: silicon will double every twelve to twenty four months. The

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Speaker 1: the actual number varies depending on when you look at

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Speaker 1: Moore's law, but in general now we say every two

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Speaker 1: years that the number of elements on a chip will double.

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Speaker 1: So that means in effect that not only are they

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Speaker 1: becoming twice as complex every two years, but twice as powerful.

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Speaker 1: They're able to do twice as much as the ones

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Speaker 1: from two years previous. So this is really kind of

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Speaker 1: the single chip micro computer for calculators is kind of

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Speaker 1: a demonstration for that. Just just two years previously, it

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Speaker 1: would have taken a chip twice the size, or two

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Speaker 1: chips to be able to do what they could fit

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Speaker 1: on one chip in UH. So we're actually seeing Moore's

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Speaker 1: law play out in the market. It's it's showing to

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Speaker 1: be a true observation, which I think is really interesting. Now,

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Speaker 1: it wouldn't be until nineteen seventy two that Texas Instruments

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Speaker 1: would introduce its own calculator to the marketplace. Up to

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Speaker 1: that point, what Texas Instruments was doing was just what

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Speaker 1: we've been saying all the time. They've been supplying elements

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Speaker 1: to other manufacturers. But in seventy two they decided to

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Speaker 1: get into the consumer marketplace with the t I hundred,

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Speaker 1: which is not a terminator, uh, it is the data

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Speaker 1: math calculator, which cost a hundred and forty nine dollars

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Speaker 1: and nine cents as its retail price. And so this

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Speaker 1: was the first consumer electronics piece that Texas Instruments had

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Speaker 1: had really gone for since the radio and uh and

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Speaker 1: and this one actually looks pretty clunky too, if you

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Speaker 1: ever take a look at it. Yeah, it's it's big.

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Speaker 1: It has that that um uh two thousand and one

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Speaker 1: rounded space. Look and look to it which is I

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Speaker 1: think characteristic of what the space age will look like

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Speaker 1: when you're in nine seventy two, right right, it's very

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Speaker 1: kind of modular, almost like you're looking at like this,

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Speaker 1: this would fit aboard the space station in in uh

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Speaker 1: two thousand one. Um, how could could do your taxes

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Speaker 1: on it? I'll could do your taxes. I'm afraid I

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Speaker 1: can't video right off on that, Dave. I'm afraid I'm

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Speaker 1: not a dependent Dave. So my next date is in

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Speaker 1: would that be for the SR fifty two? Actually, when

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Speaker 1: Jack Kilby got the v k's Working Award from the

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Speaker 1: National Academy of Engineering, so you definitely have the Jack

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Speaker 1: Kilby Award Timeline. Oh yeah, I got it all right,

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Speaker 1: Well we'll just keep going with that. Well, I just

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Speaker 1: it just I mean, it's sort of a funny aside

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Speaker 1: for me and apparently Jonathan, but it also shows how

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Speaker 1: important the I C was. You know, Jack Kilby's family

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Speaker 1: crest is a barracuda eating Neil Armstrong. Why do you

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Speaker 1: do this? Okay? So yeah, that that was and also

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Speaker 1: the thing that Jonathan, yes, the is the thing that

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Speaker 1: Jonathan said, yes, a programmable calculator. It had magnetic card storage,

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Speaker 1: which meant that you could actually program stuff on the

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Speaker 1: calculator in order to do scientific calculations UM, which that

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Speaker 1: was revolutionary as well. And it was again Texas Instruments

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Speaker 1: own product. So this is another consumer product. It used

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Speaker 1: the algebraic operating system which was developed by Texas Instruments itself,

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Speaker 1: and it came with twenty two program cards and it

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Speaker 1: costs just just a few bucks short of four dollars. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: three dollars. Had uh those program cards. I'm not sure

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Speaker 1: it said the t I sight says non volt non volatile.

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Speaker 1: So I'm thinking that that you couldn't do a lot

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Speaker 1: of you know, programming and storage. I think I think

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Speaker 1: it means that you couldn't make them explode. Okay. So,

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Speaker 1: and they also in seventy five began to make another

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Speaker 1: consumer product which other companies were working on as well. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And also UM had had uh it featured in the

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Speaker 1: works of a Mr. Douglas Adams digital watches. Yes stuff

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Speaker 1: what beeps, Yeah, the digital watches, of course, we're uh,

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Speaker 1: those were several companies were making digital watches at that point. Again,

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Speaker 1: we've reached a point now where the integrated circuit has

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Speaker 1: has reached level of manjurization where you could do some

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Speaker 1: tiny circuits in a watch and replace the old analog

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Speaker 1: watches with digital ones. And now, most digital watches at

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Speaker 1: that time were a hundred dollars or more, maybe a

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Speaker 1: hundred fifty dollars or more. So Texas Instruments decided to

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Speaker 1: try and aim for a lower price market, so most

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Speaker 1: of their digital watches were priced at forty dollars or less.

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Speaker 1: So that that helped them get a jump on on

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Speaker 1: that particular segment because there were plenty of people who

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Speaker 1: thought digital watches were pretty cool click Douglas Adams, but

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Speaker 1: they just couldn't afford them. Yeah, a couple a couple

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Speaker 1: of things that we UH skipped because my notes are frenetic.

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Speaker 1: They have lots and lots of things in them. Uh.

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Speaker 1: Nineteen seventy three, uh t I founder Eugene McDermott passed

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Speaker 1: away UM and nineteen seventy four there was a new

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Speaker 1: program that t I established in the company called Idea

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Speaker 1: and basically it was an R and D group where

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Speaker 1: they wanted to see UH the I. The idea was

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Speaker 1: that if an idea came through idea UM that managers

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Speaker 1: were authorized to go ahead and give it the green light.

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Speaker 1: You know. Oh dude, that's really cool, go with it.

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Speaker 1: And a lot of the educational uh materials that that

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Speaker 1: t I produced later on were products of this particular

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Speaker 1: group project. Yes, one of Jonathan's favorites, which will come

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Speaker 1: up in a minute. That's why I wanted to set

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Speaker 1: the stage because one of the things that they were

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Speaker 1: working on was a speech synthesizer, yes, which does come

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Speaker 1: in to play a second. So I just want to

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Speaker 1: make sure that we we covered that real quick before

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Speaker 1: we get into one of Jonathan A couple of Jonathan's

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Speaker 1: favorite yeah. I actually the next two products I have

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Speaker 1: to talk about I owned as a kid. R This

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Speaker 1: dates me somewhat and I didn't so I thought they

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Speaker 1: were cool, but I didn't have one. In nineteen seventies six,

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Speaker 1: Texas Instruments introduced the Little Professor, which looks like a

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Speaker 1: calculator with a little owl like visage on the calculator

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Speaker 1: and guys wearing a miter board. Yeah, he's he's yeah,

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Speaker 1: he's got he's got one on the top of his

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Speaker 1: head where actually the black part of the calculator there's

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Speaker 1: supposed to be the mortarboard. Uh is uh where the

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Speaker 1: readout is? Yeah, so uh it was actually not just

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Speaker 1: a calculator, but it was a a learning device. It

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Speaker 1: was to teach you how to uh perform mathematical operations.

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Speaker 1: And um I was you know, I owned one of these.

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Speaker 1: I actually used these to one of these to learn

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Speaker 1: how to do basic mathematic operations. And and I have

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Speaker 1: fond memories of this device. Um. You know, because I

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Speaker 1: was a geek even as a little kid, I was

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Speaker 1: a geek, and I found learning to be fun. And

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Speaker 1: I've always found learning to be fun, which is coincidentally

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Speaker 1: why I love my job here. So I have incidental

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Speaker 1: I have, ironically is why I enjoyed In an Atlantis

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Speaker 1: more setway, it's ironic that I enjoyed my job, you know,

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Speaker 1: um T I I have T I to thank a

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Speaker 1: lot for some of these uh devices because they were

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Speaker 1: instrumental in my learning process. So the Little Professor was

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Speaker 1: definitely one of the ones I owned, and I also

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Speaker 1: owned the other one I was going to talk about

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Speaker 1: that was introduced in nine. Development had been going on

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Speaker 1: for several years before that. When seventy eight it hit

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Speaker 1: the market, and it was the Speaking Spell and spin

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Speaker 1: Spell also was very important in uh the documentary film

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Speaker 1: Toy Story Um, as I recall, also can give you

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Speaker 1: an idea when you need to phone home. Yes, also

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Speaker 1: important in the documentary e T The Extraterrestrial Uh. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: this is part of the idea program. Yeah. And it

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Speaker 1: had the synthetic speech incorporated into it, where the the

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Speaker 1: toy would say something and you would be asked to

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Speaker 1: spell it. And it was a way of learning how

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Speaker 1: to read and to spell. And uh, I remember having

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Speaker 1: one of these, and I actually I think a couple

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Speaker 1: of kids in my neighborhood had them. And yeah, I

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Speaker 1: enjoyed using one of these as well. I mean again,

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Speaker 1: thank you t I. And in fact, the next product

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Speaker 1: I have to talk about I own that too. Would

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Speaker 1: this be the T Stroke four? Yes, actually be slash

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Speaker 1: for a for me but uh, which technically didn't come

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Speaker 1: out until nine. T I decided to enter the uh

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Speaker 1: personal computing market, and at that point there were very

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Speaker 1: few other personal computers on the market. Is the earliest

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Speaker 1: days of the personal computer age. Yeah, you could have

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Speaker 1: seen one of these if you were at CS in

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Speaker 1: June nine nine. Of course, I was only eight years

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Speaker 1: old at that point, so yeah, I was I was

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Speaker 1: busy awaiting. I was I was. I couldn't go because

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Speaker 1: I was spending all my time eagerly awaiting the Empire

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Speaker 1: strikes back, which wouldn't come out until Um there was

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Speaker 1: only fifty dollars. Yes, that was one of the reasons

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Speaker 1: why we had the T I T I N N

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Speaker 1: slash four A because that one was slashed to five dollars.

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Speaker 1: But the this was a This was a computer which

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Speaker 1: probably doesn't really resemble the way we think of computers

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Speaker 1: right now. Um, if you were to buy just the

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Speaker 1: very basic set, like if you if you had just

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Speaker 1: the base unit, it was a It looked like a

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Speaker 1: keyboard that on the right hand side had a big

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Speaker 1: cartridge slot that was in there, and you would slide

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Speaker 1: the cartridges in horizontally, not vertically. They didn't stick out.

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Speaker 1: They stuck. They didn't stick up, not right, not like

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Speaker 1: an Atari, more like a Nintendo. But there was no

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Speaker 1: cover that came down over the cartridge. And uh, you

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Speaker 1: would plug this into a monitor or television. We had

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Speaker 1: ours plugged into our TV, and uh, this is the

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Speaker 1: computer system where I played Hunt the Wumpus. I've talked

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Speaker 1: about Hunt the wamp Us a lot. It was. I mean,

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Speaker 1: there's certain things in your childhood that stick with you,

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Speaker 1: and Hunt the Wumpus stuck with me. I was terrible

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Speaker 1: at that game. I hated it, but I played it

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Speaker 1: a lot because it's what I owned. So anyway, Uh,

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Speaker 1: the Texas Instrument computer. That's one of those computers that

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Speaker 1: you hear a lot of engineers talk about how you

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Speaker 1: know they cut their teeth sometimes literally on the Texas instruments. Uh,

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Speaker 1: t and um, it's a it was. It was pretty revolutionary.

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Speaker 1: It the price tag definitely kind of hurt the sales

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Speaker 1: for the first couple of years, which is why t

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Speaker 1: I went back and started to make some changes to

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Speaker 1: the device and then released the new model at five. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: except it wasn't all sunshine and roses for this one,

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Speaker 1: because there was a manufacturing problem that lead to disastrous

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Speaker 1: results for t I. Yeah. And I actually wasn't aware

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Speaker 1: of this until I did the research, because I guess

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Speaker 1: because I never had a t I ninety nine. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: apparently there was a manufacturing problem that could cause people

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Speaker 1: under certain circumstances to get an electric shock when using

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Speaker 1: the computer, which you know you don't want well, standing

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Speaker 1: in a bucket of water is not the ideal situation

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Speaker 1: for you to use your computer anyway. Well, I'm pretty

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Speaker 1: sure that in this case it was it would take

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Speaker 1: a little more than that. It was actually the power

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Speaker 1: supply and was it was the power supply sentence I

329
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Speaker 1: didn't have one of these. Was the power supply external

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Speaker 1: on this computer? I honestly can't remember. I just curious,

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Speaker 1: you know, I honestly do not remember I remember using

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Speaker 1: this device, but I remember my memory is firmly of

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Speaker 1: me sitting on the floor of a living room with

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Speaker 1: this device plugged into a television set and playing Hunt

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Speaker 1: the Wampus beyond that can't help you, Yeah, they did,

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Speaker 1: um t. I had to recall all these devices and

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Speaker 1: send out new ones, so they were off the shelves

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Speaker 1: for a while, and that didn't That never helps well,

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00:20:16,840 --> 00:20:19,960
Speaker 1: especially during this era. You gotta remember Apple is tearing

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Speaker 1: it up with the Apple two. The Apple one was

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Speaker 1: not a huge commercial success. That was mainly a curiosity

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Speaker 1: for hobbyists, and it was sold. Do you remember how

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Speaker 1: much the Apple one was sold for six centered in

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Speaker 1: sixty six dollars and sixty six cents. So at this point,

345
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Speaker 1: the Apple two is on the market, and that's really

346
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Speaker 1: tearing it up in the in the home market place.

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Speaker 1: So t I being off the shelves, it was definitely

348
00:20:44,440 --> 00:20:47,400
Speaker 1: definitely a big blow to the company because they were

349
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Speaker 1: losing ground rapidly to Apple. And then of course later

350
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Speaker 1: on you had the ibm UH compatible computers really taking off,

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Speaker 1: and and at that point t I was sort of

352
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Speaker 1: left behind as far as the personal computer age is concerned. Ah,

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Speaker 1: so what's next? Well, the next one I have is

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Speaker 1: an eight one. The next one you have is an

355
00:21:10,160 --> 00:21:13,080
Speaker 1: eight one? Okay, do you have anything before that? Or

356
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Speaker 1: should I just launch into it? Well, I'm catching up

357
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Speaker 1: on on my notes. Pat Haggarty passed away in um,

358
00:21:20,960 --> 00:21:23,480
Speaker 1: so the the old guard, the people who started the

359
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Speaker 1: company are are starting to us pass on. Um oh,

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Speaker 1: well I have I have one in uh? Okay, Well,

361
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Speaker 1: in eighty one, the first solar powered calculator launches. Ah, yes,

362
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Speaker 1: the t I seventeen sixty six, which is pretty cool.

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Speaker 1: Yes indeed, yeah, yeah, I mean I I had a

364
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Speaker 1: Texas Instrument solar power calculators too. It almost sounds like

365
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Speaker 1: when I look back on my childhood that I was

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Speaker 1: like a Texas Instrument fanboy without knowing it. Yeah, you know,

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Speaker 1: you know one thing that's missing from their interactive timeline

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00:21:53,280 --> 00:21:56,520
Speaker 1: that I think is odd the T I thirty. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's it isn't showing up, which I think is odd

370
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Speaker 1: that they don't see it as a big deal. We

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Speaker 1: had a T I thirty. I wasn't allowed to mess

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Speaker 1: with it, um, but yeah they had, uh you know,

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Speaker 1: they might want to explain to our listeners. T I

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Speaker 1: thirty was, in my opinion, the calculator that kind of

375
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Speaker 1: really made a dent in the marketplace. It was ubiquitous

376
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Speaker 1: for a while there. I think, and and derivations of

377
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Speaker 1: the T I thirty. We have a couple around my

378
00:22:24,400 --> 00:22:27,960
Speaker 1: house now which are later model, you know, more sophisticated

379
00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:31,720
Speaker 1: solar powered this thing um that had the the red

380
00:22:31,880 --> 00:22:35,359
Speaker 1: l e eds for the display. So it's not you know,

381
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Speaker 1: I think of calculators today as having you know, l

382
00:22:37,760 --> 00:22:41,640
Speaker 1: c D black and white displays. Of course, people should

383
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Speaker 1: know smart would eventually evolve into cylons, right, I thought

384
00:22:49,359 --> 00:22:54,320
Speaker 1: those were toasters? Well it was. It was actually a terrible, terrible,

385
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Speaker 1: uh tragic love story between a T I thirty and

386
00:22:57,440 --> 00:23:02,840
Speaker 1: a toaster. Okay, all right then, so moving on. You

387
00:23:02,840 --> 00:23:06,000
Speaker 1: said you had something from two Yes, as a matter

388
00:23:06,040 --> 00:23:10,080
Speaker 1: of fact, I did. In two Uh, Jack Kilby was

389
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Speaker 1: inaugurated Inventors All of Fame. I'm telling you it was

390
00:23:15,600 --> 00:23:18,639
Speaker 1: a big deal. Like I said it it were. I

391
00:23:18,720 --> 00:23:21,880
Speaker 1: don't mean to make what's a joke because he's continuing

392
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Speaker 1: continuously getting honors. Doesn't do push ups, he pushes the

393
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Speaker 1: earth down. It was a big deal. Well, I mean,

394
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Speaker 1: at this point, integrated circuits are in so many different

395
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Speaker 1: kinds of things, from inventions all around the world, from

396
00:23:38,320 --> 00:23:44,120
Speaker 1: from companies all around the world. He revolutional, revolutionalized, revolutionized electronics.

397
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Speaker 1: So I just basics of computing and electronic It's a

398
00:23:47,680 --> 00:23:50,800
Speaker 1: running gag in this episode, but I really it's amazing

399
00:23:50,880 --> 00:23:54,360
Speaker 1: and he is being honored by people of all stripes

400
00:23:54,520 --> 00:23:58,440
Speaker 1: of engineering and electronics, so that is a positive thing.

401
00:23:58,520 --> 00:24:00,919
Speaker 1: So I really don't mean to make collided this. So

402
00:24:00,960 --> 00:24:04,560
Speaker 1: the next thing I have is actually the the date

403
00:24:04,600 --> 00:24:10,399
Speaker 1: of October. This is when t I officially announced it

404
00:24:10,440 --> 00:24:14,520
Speaker 1: with with withdrawing from the home computer market. And so

405
00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:17,640
Speaker 1: it looks like once once it's all said and done,

406
00:24:17,640 --> 00:24:20,960
Speaker 1: it looked like t I lost over half a billion

407
00:24:21,040 --> 00:24:26,119
Speaker 1: dollars due to the t I problems um which included

408
00:24:26,200 --> 00:24:32,960
Speaker 1: all the different various uh drains on the their income.

409
00:24:33,400 --> 00:24:38,440
Speaker 1: So that was that was a pretty spectacular failure. Yeah,

410
00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:40,679
Speaker 1: but you know, I would I would argue that it

411
00:24:40,720 --> 00:24:43,320
Speaker 1: was one of those failures, it wasn't ultimately a failure.

412
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Speaker 1: Well and certainly, like I said, there's so many computer

413
00:24:46,960 --> 00:24:49,080
Speaker 1: scientists out there who will talk about owning a t

414
00:24:49,240 --> 00:24:51,840
Speaker 1: I as well as their first machine and how that

415
00:24:51,960 --> 00:24:55,879
Speaker 1: really got them into computing. So in a way, even

416
00:24:55,920 --> 00:25:00,000
Speaker 1: though financially it was it was not a success. Uh,

417
00:25:00,480 --> 00:25:03,840
Speaker 1: it was one of the most influential pieces of consumer

418
00:25:03,920 --> 00:25:06,479
Speaker 1: hardware to hit the market. Yeah, I mean it just

419
00:25:07,119 --> 00:25:09,960
Speaker 1: without that, we might not have had some of the

420
00:25:10,240 --> 00:25:12,600
Speaker 1: great computer scientists who have come out since then who

421
00:25:12,600 --> 00:25:15,199
Speaker 1: have really kind of shaped the way we use computers,

422
00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:19,080
Speaker 1: things like everything from the way computers network to the

423
00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:23,600
Speaker 1: sounds computers make. I mean, there's some pretty spectacular stories

424
00:25:23,640 --> 00:25:26,280
Speaker 1: that come out of people who credit the TIN with

425
00:25:26,359 --> 00:25:32,480
Speaker 1: their interest in the field. So my next date is

426
00:25:33,640 --> 00:25:36,680
Speaker 1: six when Jack Kilby got the I E. E. Medal

427
00:25:36,720 --> 00:25:41,000
Speaker 1: of Honor. And let's see, there are some pretty big

428
00:25:41,040 --> 00:25:42,880
Speaker 1: things that happened. I mean a lot of the things

429
00:25:42,880 --> 00:25:45,119
Speaker 1: that happened to t I in the nine eighties or

430
00:25:45,160 --> 00:25:47,960
Speaker 1: sort of behind the scenes for most of us, things

431
00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:51,040
Speaker 1: like stock splits and you know, moving branching out and

432
00:25:51,119 --> 00:25:54,560
Speaker 1: establishing branches around the world. Um, it did in get

433
00:25:54,640 --> 00:25:58,200
Speaker 1: rid of its interest in g S. I just an

434
00:25:58,240 --> 00:26:03,440
Speaker 1: interesting note the dow physical origins of the company. Now

435
00:26:03,680 --> 00:26:08,000
Speaker 1: you know, the company is letting go of that, yep. Um.

436
00:26:08,200 --> 00:26:11,400
Speaker 1: And let's see. So we're moving into the nineties, I think. Yeah.

437
00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:15,080
Speaker 1: And at this point, you know, the consumer technology is

438
00:26:15,080 --> 00:26:17,240
Speaker 1: starting to wind down a little bit. They still make

439
00:26:17,359 --> 00:26:21,159
Speaker 1: plenty of calculators. Um. Sorry, I was gonna stay. In

440
00:26:21,160 --> 00:26:24,400
Speaker 1: the late eighties and nineties, they had those really awesome

441
00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:29,000
Speaker 1: graphing calculators which were huge and extremely I mean huge. Listen,

442
00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:32,399
Speaker 1: this was a big deal. Uh. And in the late eighties,

443
00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:34,080
Speaker 1: I was in high school when I was starting to

444
00:26:34,119 --> 00:26:38,720
Speaker 1: take physics and chemistry and and calculus, and and you know,

445
00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:41,159
Speaker 1: I was really jealous of all these people who had

446
00:26:41,200 --> 00:26:43,480
Speaker 1: these graphic calculators. Of course, at that point we weren't

447
00:26:43,480 --> 00:26:46,720
Speaker 1: allowed to use them because you know that cheating things

448
00:26:46,760 --> 00:26:49,080
Speaker 1: like the t I eight one now you have to

449
00:26:49,119 --> 00:26:52,840
Speaker 1: have them. Yeah, yeah, these were these were big deals.

450
00:26:53,040 --> 00:26:55,399
Speaker 1: I mean I remember seeing them too. I think I

451
00:26:55,440 --> 00:26:57,359
Speaker 1: actually did have a graphing calculator at one point. We

452
00:26:57,400 --> 00:26:59,760
Speaker 1: did have to have one, and that was a big

453
00:26:59,760 --> 00:27:03,359
Speaker 1: deal because they were they were they were not the

454
00:27:03,480 --> 00:27:07,800
Speaker 1: cheapest electronics out there on the market. They were expensive,

455
00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:10,840
Speaker 1: but you know, they were very sophisticated, especially again for

456
00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:14,080
Speaker 1: their time. UM. So, yeah, most of t i's consumer

457
00:27:14,080 --> 00:27:17,640
Speaker 1: products at this point are really in the educational field. Yeah,

458
00:27:17,680 --> 00:27:19,760
Speaker 1: a lot of them certainly are, at least the stuff

459
00:27:19,800 --> 00:27:23,880
Speaker 1: that people actually see. UM. Again, they're they're doing all

460
00:27:23,960 --> 00:27:28,400
Speaker 1: kinds of things in the in the background. UM. They

461
00:27:29,440 --> 00:27:33,240
Speaker 1: got rid of their Unix business, in their UM industrial systems,

462
00:27:33,920 --> 00:27:37,320
Speaker 1: in they actually got out of a lot of business

463
00:27:37,359 --> 00:27:42,199
Speaker 1: in the nineties. Basically, they're finding that they all the

464
00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:44,160
Speaker 1: things that they were working on over the years, they

465
00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:47,760
Speaker 1: just weren't working out for them anymore. They just sort

466
00:27:47,760 --> 00:27:50,919
Speaker 1: of gradually sloughed off. They felt that it was pulling

467
00:27:50,920 --> 00:27:55,199
Speaker 1: focus from their core competencies. Yeah, Jack killb won the

468
00:27:55,280 --> 00:28:00,240
Speaker 1: Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology UM and Eric Johnson inten

469
00:28:00,680 --> 00:28:04,960
Speaker 1: passed on. Uh. That was when t I launched t

470
00:28:05,080 --> 00:28:08,800
Speaker 1: I dot Com. So they were and that was again

471
00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:11,320
Speaker 1: that was kind of early for the Internet days. Yeah,

472
00:28:11,359 --> 00:28:13,920
Speaker 1: when you think that the Worldwide Web really didn't start

473
00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:16,919
Speaker 1: until about nine two. The Internet, the Internet had been

474
00:28:16,960 --> 00:28:20,119
Speaker 1: around for a while, but the the ability for the

475
00:28:20,160 --> 00:28:23,440
Speaker 1: average person to access the Internet in any way beyond

476
00:28:23,640 --> 00:28:28,359
Speaker 1: email or other like basic Internet commands, um, that was

477
00:28:28,400 --> 00:28:32,159
Speaker 1: really limited until until the World Wide Web. Uh. And

478
00:28:32,280 --> 00:28:34,200
Speaker 1: ninety six, they got rid of their printer business and

479
00:28:34,680 --> 00:28:36,240
Speaker 1: ven they got rid of a whole lot of stuff.

480
00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:38,840
Speaker 1: They got out of this, the defense business. Uh, they

481
00:28:38,880 --> 00:28:43,280
Speaker 1: got rid of software, um, telecommunications, just all kinds of

482
00:28:43,280 --> 00:28:45,400
Speaker 1: stuff that they said, you know what this We're going

483
00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:48,400
Speaker 1: to focus on the other things and that's not part

484
00:28:48,440 --> 00:28:50,720
Speaker 1: of it. Yeah, And they continued to do that over

485
00:28:50,720 --> 00:28:54,280
Speaker 1: the next couple of years. They were acquiring some companies

486
00:28:54,400 --> 00:28:57,280
Speaker 1: and then they were divesting themselves of others. Well, they

487
00:28:57,320 --> 00:29:00,560
Speaker 1: got rid of got rid of their electronic to business,

488
00:29:00,960 --> 00:29:05,640
Speaker 1: uh Tiger Electronic spot that so um, you know these

489
00:29:05,680 --> 00:29:08,880
Speaker 1: are It's funny because I think of t I in

490
00:29:08,920 --> 00:29:12,840
Speaker 1: those nineteen eighties terms, because that's really when I became

491
00:29:12,880 --> 00:29:16,320
Speaker 1: aware of them. Uh. My father actually, as an electronic

492
00:29:16,400 --> 00:29:18,720
Speaker 1: or I'm sorry, mechanical engineer, worked with some of t

493
00:29:18,920 --> 00:29:23,320
Speaker 1: I's programmable calculators UM, and I actually there are a

494
00:29:23,320 --> 00:29:26,480
Speaker 1: couple of units, uh that he had that are still

495
00:29:26,520 --> 00:29:29,600
Speaker 1: around my my dad's house. Who that you actually had

496
00:29:29,640 --> 00:29:32,520
Speaker 1: to pull out a section of the calculator and snap

497
00:29:32,520 --> 00:29:35,920
Speaker 1: in a cartridge and then you could lock it down

498
00:29:36,080 --> 00:29:40,040
Speaker 1: with a key to this ginormous printer and the work

499
00:29:40,040 --> 00:29:42,320
Speaker 1: you would do would print out on a piece on

500
00:29:42,360 --> 00:29:46,720
Speaker 1: a roll of tape, very much like a um UM

501
00:29:46,960 --> 00:29:49,680
Speaker 1: cash register might um. And then, you know, this was

502
00:29:49,760 --> 00:29:52,160
Speaker 1: back in the the late nineteen eighties, so they were

503
00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:54,640
Speaker 1: still you know, pretty involved in these other things, but

504
00:29:54,680 --> 00:29:57,000
Speaker 1: these are not things that people would buy and have

505
00:29:57,080 --> 00:29:59,240
Speaker 1: in their homes. These are things that you would have

506
00:29:59,320 --> 00:30:02,240
Speaker 1: for business. And then in the late nineties and early

507
00:30:02,240 --> 00:30:05,160
Speaker 1: two thousand era, they started to experiment with various censor

508
00:30:05,240 --> 00:30:09,040
Speaker 1: and control divisions, some of which they acquired only to

509
00:30:09,040 --> 00:30:12,360
Speaker 1: to sell off later. It was again it's kind of

510
00:30:12,360 --> 00:30:16,120
Speaker 1: like this, uh, this era of them testing out the

511
00:30:16,280 --> 00:30:20,640
Speaker 1: other parts of the other other industry interests to see

512
00:30:20,680 --> 00:30:23,640
Speaker 1: if that would be a good investment for the company.

513
00:30:23,640 --> 00:30:25,000
Speaker 1: And then some of them they kept, and some of

514
00:30:25,040 --> 00:30:29,160
Speaker 1: them they realized were uh not really aligned with the

515
00:30:29,160 --> 00:30:34,000
Speaker 1: company vision. They did ship their twenty million graphics calculator

516
00:30:34,040 --> 00:30:37,080
Speaker 1: graphing calculator in two thousand. Yeah, you know, why don't

517
00:30:37,080 --> 00:30:39,080
Speaker 1: you talk about what happened to Kilby in two thousand

518
00:30:40,520 --> 00:30:43,360
Speaker 1: and that was just a really small prize, the Nobel

519
00:30:43,440 --> 00:30:47,520
Speaker 1: Prize in physics. He got that in two thousands. Ye. So,

520
00:30:48,760 --> 00:30:54,280
Speaker 1: and Mr Kilby is well well, uh known for his

521
00:30:54,760 --> 00:30:59,120
Speaker 1: pioneering work in integrated circuits. Just amazing how how much

522
00:30:59,200 --> 00:31:02,000
Speaker 1: the world hasn't raced you know, his work. Uh. In

523
00:31:02,160 --> 00:31:05,680
Speaker 1: two thousand three, Cecil Green, one of the original founders,

524
00:31:05,720 --> 00:31:08,800
Speaker 1: passes away. So I believe that's all the founders at

525
00:31:08,840 --> 00:31:11,680
Speaker 1: that point. He was a hundred and three or a

526
00:31:11,800 --> 00:31:15,040
Speaker 1: hundred and two and a half. That's when you get

527
00:31:15,080 --> 00:31:19,760
Speaker 1: to that HD go with the halfs, you know, Okay, Um, yeah,

528
00:31:19,880 --> 00:31:22,840
Speaker 1: So we're winding up to getting close to the modern

529
00:31:22,920 --> 00:31:26,000
Speaker 1: day now and what Texas Instruments is into. They're still

530
00:31:26,080 --> 00:31:29,080
Speaker 1: very much involved in semiconductors and transistors. I didn't I

531
00:31:29,080 --> 00:31:31,000
Speaker 1: didn't even meant we haven't really even gotten into the

532
00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:33,560
Speaker 1: digital signal processing stuff. They were in the first three

533
00:31:33,600 --> 00:31:37,720
Speaker 1: calmft S k odems in the mid nineties. Um, there

534
00:31:37,760 --> 00:31:43,360
Speaker 1: a d LP, the digital light processing technology which is

535
00:31:43,520 --> 00:31:45,920
Speaker 1: on many many TV sets. They worked with fujitsu on

536
00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:50,360
Speaker 1: all kinds of stuff regarding that and one of Jonathan's

537
00:31:50,520 --> 00:31:53,920
Speaker 1: favorite movies of all times, and my little battery is

538
00:31:53,960 --> 00:31:57,800
Speaker 1: telling me I should shut down my computer. Um uh.

539
00:31:58,240 --> 00:32:02,280
Speaker 1: One of Jonathan's favorite movies, Star Wars episode one, The

540
00:32:02,280 --> 00:32:07,760
Speaker 1: Phantom Menace, showed on DLP was a terrible documentary. But yeah,

541
00:32:07,800 --> 00:32:11,120
Speaker 1: I mean again, uh you know that. Of course that

542
00:32:11,160 --> 00:32:14,080
Speaker 1: movie was heralded as being digital. Oh boy was a

543
00:32:14,120 --> 00:32:17,120
Speaker 1: digital boy, howdy was a digital you know? And they

544
00:32:17,240 --> 00:32:21,040
Speaker 1: used t I technology to show it off in theaters.

545
00:32:21,400 --> 00:32:26,000
Speaker 1: Getting a bad feeling about this, So I mean, yeah,

546
00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:29,600
Speaker 1: they're they're, they're t I has faded from the public

547
00:32:29,640 --> 00:32:35,120
Speaker 1: eye and a lot of areas, Um, there goes the computer,

548
00:32:35,520 --> 00:32:40,000
Speaker 1: but it's still it's still very much active behind the scenes,

549
00:32:40,040 --> 00:32:42,080
Speaker 1: like you're still and and of course if you are

550
00:32:42,560 --> 00:32:45,800
Speaker 1: a student, then you're probably familiar with t I calculators

551
00:32:45,840 --> 00:32:48,280
Speaker 1: because they still are very much the standard for those

552
00:32:48,280 --> 00:32:51,160
Speaker 1: as well. And you're you're very likely to have t

553
00:32:51,440 --> 00:32:56,880
Speaker 1: I chips in uh, pretty much all kinds of technology

554
00:32:56,880 --> 00:32:59,920
Speaker 1: that you may be carrying in your on your person

555
00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:02,520
Speaker 1: at a given time. On the TV, I think t

556
00:33:02,760 --> 00:33:06,120
Speaker 1: I is only second to qual calm for chips and

557
00:33:06,160 --> 00:33:10,080
Speaker 1: mobile handsets. So, uh, there are quite a few handsets

558
00:33:10,120 --> 00:33:11,920
Speaker 1: that use some sort of t I chip. In fact,

559
00:33:12,120 --> 00:33:14,960
Speaker 1: if you look at the breakdown of any electronics device,

560
00:33:15,080 --> 00:33:17,440
Speaker 1: there's a good chance you're gonna find at least one

561
00:33:17,520 --> 00:33:20,600
Speaker 1: chip in that device that is going to be branded

562
00:33:20,600 --> 00:33:24,080
Speaker 1: by Texas Instruments. So whereas I think a lot of

563
00:33:24,080 --> 00:33:27,120
Speaker 1: talk in Texas, they really do brand them. Yes, yeah,

564
00:33:28,720 --> 00:33:32,560
Speaker 1: it takes a very tiny little fire. Yeah. Now I

565
00:33:32,600 --> 00:33:36,520
Speaker 1: think that um, maybe people since they don't see Texas

566
00:33:36,520 --> 00:33:39,040
Speaker 1: Instruments computers anymore, and they don't see you know, there

567
00:33:39,040 --> 00:33:41,000
Speaker 1: were toys and all kinds of things that really got

568
00:33:41,040 --> 00:33:43,560
Speaker 1: a lot of public attention. Uh, you might have thought

569
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:47,400
Speaker 1: the company is is gone, but absolutely not. They just

570
00:33:47,560 --> 00:33:50,480
Speaker 1: have really returned to their B two B O E

571
00:33:50,640 --> 00:33:53,840
Speaker 1: M roots where they are supplying parts to other people

572
00:33:53,880 --> 00:33:57,120
Speaker 1: who make stuff. And he knows, maybe maybe we'll get

573
00:33:57,160 --> 00:33:59,360
Speaker 1: to a point where it's a full cycle and they'll

574
00:33:59,400 --> 00:34:03,640
Speaker 1: go to just looking for oil. That's entirely possible, and

575
00:34:03,720 --> 00:34:07,880
Speaker 1: it'll start all over again. Well, that that I think

576
00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:10,160
Speaker 1: brings us up to speed, and that wraps up our

577
00:34:10,520 --> 00:34:14,320
Speaker 1: history of Texas Instruments. I was actually really interested in this. Um.

578
00:34:14,360 --> 00:34:16,879
Speaker 1: I mean, I've been familiar with the company mainly through

579
00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:19,600
Speaker 1: it's it's consumer products because that was during my childhood.

580
00:34:20,040 --> 00:34:22,920
Speaker 1: So that's that's where I knew the company from. Whereas

581
00:34:22,960 --> 00:34:26,400
Speaker 1: really what they're famous for is revolutionizing the electronics industry.

582
00:34:26,440 --> 00:34:31,040
Speaker 1: So what do I know? Ye oh that So again,

583
00:34:31,080 --> 00:34:34,000
Speaker 1: if you guys have any suggestions for other companies you'd

584
00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:36,399
Speaker 1: like us to take a close look at and kind

585
00:34:36,400 --> 00:34:38,359
Speaker 1: of give a breakdown of what they've done and what

586
00:34:38,400 --> 00:34:42,360
Speaker 1: it means to be uh, the technology industries as a whole,

587
00:34:42,840 --> 00:34:45,040
Speaker 1: let us know. You can drop us a line on

588
00:34:45,080 --> 00:34:48,480
Speaker 1: Facebook or Twitter or handled. There is text stuff h

589
00:34:48,680 --> 00:34:51,080
Speaker 1: s W or you can send us an email and

590
00:34:51,120 --> 00:34:54,200
Speaker 1: that address is tech stuff at how stuff Works dot

591
00:34:54,200 --> 00:34:55,880
Speaker 1: com and Chris and I will talk to you again

592
00:34:56,360 --> 00:35:01,520
Speaker 1: really soon. Be short. Check out our new video podcast,

593
00:35:01,760 --> 00:35:04,600
Speaker 1: Stuff from the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as

594
00:35:04,640 --> 00:35:08,360
Speaker 1: we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow.

595
00:35:09,560 --> 00:35:12,279
Speaker 1: The House Stuff Works iPhone app has arrived. Download it

596
00:35:12,320 --> 00:35:19,640
Speaker 1: today on iTunes, brought to you by the reinvented two

597
00:35:19,680 --> 00:35:22,160
Speaker 1: thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you