For this episode of RIP Corp, we take a closer look at Fairchild Semiconductor, a pioneer in the manufacturing of transistors and integrated circuits. After its well-documented breakthroughs, the company that helped invent an entire industry, and arguably the single most technologically significant one in the 20th century, failed to remain competitive. We explore how the way we understand Fairchild’s story (or don’t) matters for how we think about the past, present, and future of chip manufacturing.
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RIP Corp is written and hosted by Ingrid Burrington, with fact-checking from Matt Giles. Produced by Meghal Janardan and Mike Rugnetta. Associate producer, Taylor Behnke. Original music and sound design from Andrew Atkin and Michael Simonelli. Design and illustration by Beatriz Lozano and Megan Mulholland. Executive produced by Jason Oberholtzer.