MICROELECTRONICS NEWSLETTER
January 17, 1976

1. INTEL vs ADVANCED MEMORY SYSTEMS
Intel's action with respect to Mr. James T. Koo is patterned after the recent action of National Semiconductor hiring Mr. Alter from Fairchild. Marty Alter was a specialist in "Isoplanar".

The problems related to proprietary information and trade secrets has become an important question in the integrated circuit field. Proprietary and trade secret carelessness on the part of Fairchild probably allowed Intel to be the success it is today. Certainly, the knowledge which Intel inherited from Fairchild, AMS, and the group of employees hired from Honeywell was an important factor, if not the key factor in their success in the memory field.

AMS, on the other hand, received a lot of benefits from the expertise which its first president, Bill Lloyd, developed at IBM.

2. NATIONAL
National is well known for second-sourcing and its skill in picking up the right people to head up new product developments. Unquestionably, National's position in both product innovation and marketing are related to fully utilizing the backgrounds of the people they employ.

3. FAIRCHILD
Fairchild's public relations have deteriorated. Fairchild has not been effective in developing employee loyalties. While Hoefler's analysis of Fairchild represents substantial aggravation, he is still centered on the basic management problem of competence and esprit de corps.

4. WATCH PRICES
There has been considerable publicity given the new watch prices from TI and Fairchild. The facts are on the basis of large-scale production that $19.95 is still profitable. With a few innovations in quartz crystal manufacture and with utilization of low cost cases (which need not be plastic), the electronic watch should be cheaper to produce than the mechanical watch.