National Semiconductor Celebrates 50 Years

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PRR

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Self-puff from NatSemi, but justified and perhaps interesting.....
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National Semiconductor Celebrates 50 Years of Industry Leadership; Launches Sixth Decade Focused on Energy

Today, National Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE:NSM) is celebrating its 50th anniversary. National’s story is one intricately woven into the history of the high-tech industry. When the company was founded, computers were the size of buildings, telephones were wired to walls, televisions were boxes filled with tubes and humans had not yet left the earth’s atmosphere. National’s many technological innovations have shaped the industry and left their mark on the world.

National was founded in 1959, the same year the integrated circuit (IC) was created. In 1966, National moved the company’s headquarters to a large plot of land in Santa Clara, California, that was to become known as “Silicon Valley.” Known for its world-class manufacturing and logistics, product reliability, and innovative technology, National has had many notable “industry firsts” in the last 50 years.

The Beginning of the Analog Industry
The analog industry was started by pioneering engineers such as National’s Bob Widlar. In 1967, National developed the first integrated voltage regulator, the LM100. National went on to develop the industry’s first modern operational amplifier (LM101), which is still in use today. National developed the first band-gap voltage reference (LM113) and the first low-dropout (LDO) regulator (LM2930).

Product advancement has always been closely linked to innovation in packaging and fabrication processes. National first developed the Epoxy B molding compound that allowed plastic packaging to block moisture – a packaging leap that was soon adopted by......... {more, deleted for space -PRR}

View our interactive timeline with 50 years of industry and National milestones at
www.national.com/history

 
My first job in electronics back in the late '60s was working on a DC to DC switching PS (for a Navy project) that was based around the LM100. While the LM100 was intended as a linear regulator, some clever Raytheon (IIRC) engineer tricked it to be a switcher.

JR

PS: got rid of RAP just in time...  :eek:

 
MicroZer said:
        Can I see the project that you said for Navy project? I you want to my friend.,



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EDIT: spam link removed

The Navy project was the DSRV, Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle. It was basically metal hull designed to mate up with a submarine hatch and withstand the very high pressures encountered if a disabled submarine is sitting on a deep sea floor.

The specific project I was working on was the ICAD (integrated control and display) power supply. Several switching regulators to take the nominal 28V (?) raw battery voltage and convert to more useful 5V and 12V outputs. This was a long time ago so I don't recall much more than that, but it was a real program  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Submergence_Rescue_Vehicle
350px-DSRV-Mystic.jpg


JR

 
Now gone he no you friend, no how he want to you friend.

...but I did enjoy the DSRV link & pics! -I wonder if they're using similar things anywhere in the Airbus black box recorder hunt...?

Keith
 

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