1982

Highlights

• In the late 1970s and into the next decade, the American semiconductor industry had been witnessing a rapid erosion of its technological leadership. In an environment of accelerating change, complexity and cost, the burden of maintaining duplicative company-based research laboratories had become unsustainable. The response came in June 1981, when the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) entertained a proposal for a "Semiconductor Research Cooperative" and in December 1981 SIA Chair Bob Noyce announced the imminent creation of Semiconductor Research Corporation.
• SRC’s interim Board of Directors, led by Erich Bloch of IBM, first meets in January 1982, and in March appoints Larry Sumney as Executive Director.
• Member recruitment kicks off with a letter from Erich Bloch to would-be founding members: "The purpose of this letter is to invite your company to participate in a new cooperative venture with other companies in the semiconductor and closely related industries. The purpose of this company is to enhance basic research in semiconductor research disciplines."
• In April and May, a University Advisory Council forms to address issues such as intellectual property, research duplication and performance evaluation.
• The June Board of Directors meeting faced a full agenda: member recruiting, establishment of a Technical Advisory Board, site selection, organizational structure, budgets and staffing. Key decisions were made, and SRC was off to a fast start.
• The first Technology Advisory Board meeting met in early September. Participants from highly competitive companies worked with SRC staff to define the processes of a cooperative research organization.
• Requests for proposal were issued in September, to which 166 responses were received. Some initial awards were announced in November prior to the evaluation of all 166 proposals.