MICROELECTRONICS NEWSLETTER
August 28, 1976

HOME ELECTROCUTION
More demand is being felt for ground fault protection devices which would eliminate accidents of this type. Although there is considerable controversy, and the effectiveness of the device has not been fully proven, a number of cities are beginning to include ground fault protection as part of their city electrical codes. If this became widespread, it would generate a substantial new market for semiconductor devices.

CCD APPLICATIONS
Charge-coupled devices have ready and proven applications in analog delay lines, filters, correlators and imaging devices, but the digital storage application has stiffer competition. CCD fabrication is as complex as the new double-poly RAM process, requiring as many mask layers (as many as 9) for wafer fab. Although CCD uses a smaller memory cell resulting in lower cost, the information retrieval is serial which restricts the application and inhibits general industry development interest. Mnemonics had a fault-tolerant gimmick to raise yields, but there's more to success than technical innovation.

MARSHALL COX
It's quite likely that Marshall Cox would try the Western Digital situation; however, it's also possible that the problems of Western Digital are not those that Marshall could fix.

BERNIE MARREN NEW COMPANY
While we have no specific information, ICE is getting more and more communications traffic with respect to new companies and/or the starting of new companies by major systems houses.

MOTOROLA EXODUS
In addition to the exodus, Motorola is beginning to hire people and rebuild it's organization with quite a few of the old timers adopting a "wait and see" or "things got to get better - they can't get any worse" attitude.

FCC CITIZENS BAND
In addition to the problems with citizens band, the FCC recently granted Texas Instruments a cost-plus experimental program to develop a new type of television.

EXPERT TESTIMONY SERVICES
More and more the complexities of the legal system have developed a need for expert testimony in almost all aspects of integrated circuits. ICE is getting a major percentage of its business in performing in this manner.

HOWARD BOBB
Timex has been trying to solve its source of supply and expertise in the watch area for some time.

WATCH MARKET
We suspect that the foreign watch manufacturer will, of necessity, have to generally tie up with American technology and know-how in order to allow them to continue to compete in the worldwide watch market.

FAIRCHILD - MERRILL LYNCH COMMENTS
Some slight kinks in National's armor plus leftover lethargy at Motorola and the product mix and product line of TI have allowed Fairchild to move back into the good graces of some customers. The application of Isoplanar technology in both bipolar and MOS devices is broadened and has given Fairchild an edge in some of the high-speed bipolar and possibly some of the MOS applications. Fairchild's progress in the MOS Isoplanar process used for 4K RAM and F-8 microprocessors at Wappinger Falls should be monitored closely.