VLSI Technology

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VLSI Technology, Inc was a company which designed and manufactured custom and semi-custom ICs. The company was based in Silicon Valley, with headquarters at 1109 McKay Drive in San Jose, California. Along with LSI Logic, VLSI Technology defined the leading edge of the Application-specific integrated circuit business, which accelerated the push of powerful embedded systems into affordable products.

The company was founded in 1979 by a trio from Fairchild Semiconductor by way of Synertek - Jack Balletto, Dan Floyd, Gunnar Wetlesen - and by Doug Fairbairn of Xerox PARC and Lambda (later VLSI Design) magazine.

Alfred J. Stein became the CEO of the company in 1982. Subsequently VLSI built its first fab in San Jose; eventually a second fab was built in San Antonio, Texas.

VLSI had its initial public offering in 1983, and was listed on the stock market as (NASDAQ: VLSI).

[edit] Advanced Tools for VLSI Design

Thanks to its Xerox PARC heritage, VLSI was an important pioneer in the Electronic design automation industry. It offered a sophisticated package of tools, originally based on the 'lambda-based' design style advocated by Carver Mead and Lynn Conway. Scientists and innovations from the 'design technology' part of VLSI found their way to Cadence Design Systems (by way of Redwood Design Automation), Synopsys (by way of Compass Design Automation; was sold to Avant! Corporation, which itself was recently bought by Synopsys Inc.), and elsewhere.

[edit] Global Expansion

VLSI maintained operations throughout the USA, and in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan. One of its key sites was in Tempe, Arizona, where a family of highly successful chipsets was developed for the IBM PC.

In 1990, VLSI Technology, along with Acorn Computers and Apple Computer were the founding investing partners in ARM Ltd.

Ericsson of Sweden, after many years of fruitful collaboration, was by 1998 VLSI's largest customer. Within the Wireless Products division, based at Sophia-Antipolis in France, VLSI developed a range of algorithms and circuits for the GSM standard and for cordless standards such as the European DECT and the Japanese PHS. Stimulated by its growth and success in the wireless handset IC area, Philips Electronics acquired VLSI in June 1999, for about $1 billion. The former components survive to this day as part of Philips spin-off NXP Semiconductors.Airtel