How Do I Get into Semiconductor Sales?

Many computer historians believe that in order to understand the history of Silicon Valley in the United States, it is necessary to understand the early Fairchild Semiconductor (Fairchild Semiconductor), also translated as Fairchild Semiconductor. This company, once the world's largest, most innovative and most exciting semiconductor manufacturing company, has laid a solid foundation for Silicon Valley's growth. More importantly, this company has also bred tens of thousands of technical and management talents for Silicon Valley. It is indeed the "West Point Military Academy" of the electronics and computer industries and a veritable "cradle of talent". Batches of elite talents came out and started businesses here, writing a glorious history of Silicon Valley; however, it is precisely because of the massive loss of talents that this company has also experienced ups and downs in the sea of commerce.

Fairchild Semiconductor

Many computer historians believe that to understand the United States

The eight youths started planning to run away from Shockley. Under Noyce, they submitted their resignations to Shockley. Shockley furiously called them "

The Eight Rebellions found a photographic equipment company based in New York, USA to support them in starting their business. The company's name is Fairchild, which is transliterated as "Fairchild", but it is usually translated as "fair child". Fairchild Photography Equipment was formerly an aerial photography company founded by S. Fairchild in 1920. Fairchild is not only an entrepreneur but also an inventor. His inventions are mainly in the field of aviation, including sealed-cabin aircraft, folding wings, and so on. Because the product was very popular, he divided the company into two in 1936. Among them, Fairchild Photographic Equipment Co., Ltd. produced cameras and electronic equipment.

When the Eight Rebellions sought him for cooperation, Mr. Fairchild, who was already in his 60s, provided only $ 3,600 in seed funding, requiring them to develop and produce commercial semiconductor devices and enjoy two years of purchasing privileges. As a result, the company founded by "Eight Rebellion" was officially named Fairchild Semiconductor, and the head of "Fairchild" was naturally Noyce.

In October 1957, Fairchild Semiconductor still looked around in Silicon Valley

Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation in the 1960s entered its golden age. By 1967, the company had a turnover of nearly $ 200 million, which was astronomical at the time. According to that year's entry into the company

Massive brain drain is the "gospel" for Silicon Valley development, but it is a disaster for Fairchild Semiconductor. From 1965 to 1968, the company's sales continued to decline, less than 120 million US dollars, no profit for two consecutive years. People are clearly aware that it is no longer a "miracle created by naughty children".

In order to find someone to replace Noyce's job, Sherman Fairchild paid the highest salary in the history of Silicon Valley-3 years $ 1 million salary plus $ 600,000 stock, from

Foreign capital does not seem to be able to invigorate the declining Fairchild Semiconductor. Although Schlumberger recruited a group of talents to study artificial intelligence, which could have allowed Fairchild to quickly enter the field of robot production, they did not do so. In fact, after continuing to lose money, Fairchild was resold to another US company for one-third of the original price. The buyer was the National Semiconductor Corporation (NSC) managed by the former Fairchild general manager Spock. The Fairchild semiconductor brand was once End of life. In 1996, National Semiconductor relocated the original Fairchild company headquarters to Maine and restored the old name of Fairchild Semiconductor. However, the "Silicon Valley Talent Cradle" with 6,500 employees had to withdraw from Silicon Valley.

As early as 1962, Fairchild Semiconductor established a production line for the development and manufacture of transistors in Maine. It has branches in California, Utah, and even South Korea and Malaysia. Strength, mainly research and development of semiconductor memory devices. After the headquarters was relocated to South Portland, Maine, the company's leaders tried to revive the glory. However, the fateful "Fair Child" was resold by National Semiconductor for $ 550 million in March 1997. The reasons are self-evident. YuNational Semiconductor bought Cyrix, the world's third largest microprocessor maker, for the same price, trying to compete with Intel and AMD for the PC semiconductor market.

The taste of being bought and sold is certainly uncomfortable. K.Pond, the current CEO and president of Fairchild Semiconductor, hopes to implement a strategic reorganization of the company. Pound studied at the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Arkansas and received his Pennsylvania Master of Business Administration (MBA). Since joining Fairchild Semiconductor in 1968, he has held key positions in many departments, and has been the main leader of Fairchild Semiconductor since 1994. Fortunately, this time the capital acquisition is a venture capital company, Fairchild Semiconductor has finally achieved a neutral identity. Pound said excitedly, this change will be conducive to the development of Fairchild's internal value, allowing us to develop independently and become a semiconductor company with a variety of product supplies.

Sure enough, Fairchild Semiconductor, a subsidiary of Pound, has made amazing moves continuously, and it has also started corporate acquisitions: In November of that year, Fairchild Semiconductor spent 120 million yuan and bought the Raytheon Semiconductor Division with annual revenue of 70 million; 1998 In December of this year, Fairchild again invested 455 million yuan and acquired a semiconductor factory of South Korea's Samsung Corporation that manufactures special chips. The acquisition will make semiconductor products made by Fairchild more suitable for televisions, video recorders and audio equipment, and make strides towards consumer electronics manufacturing.

As a "myth" that supports the rise of Silicon Valley, Fairchild Semiconductor has gone through a glorious and tortuous journey. Success and failure are caused by talents. It is what is called "success is also a matter of failure, and failure is also a matter of failure."