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Gordon E. Moore, C. Sheldon Roberts, Eugene Kleiner, Robert N. Noyce, Victor H. Grinich, Julius Blank, Jean A. Hoerni and Jay T. Last -- the "Traitorous Eight" from Shockley Semiconductor -- use $3500 of their own money to develop a method of mass-producing silicon transistors using a double diffusion technique and a chemical-etching system. The silicon and germanium mesa allows manufacturers to produce multiple transistors on a single wafer. (Previously, transistors could only be manufactured one at a time.) The potential for the new "mesa process" is enormous, but the inventors need financial backing.
Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corporation invests $1.5 million in return for an option to buy the company within eight years. On October 1, 1957, Fairchild Semiconductor is born. Its goal: the development and production of silicon diffused transistors and other semiconductor devices. The new company is profitable in six months with the help of its first sale: an order from IBM™ for 100 transistors at $150 a piece. The order is shipped in a Brillo® carton picked up at a local supermarket by Jay Last.
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