History of Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments has been around since 1951. The company was founded by Cecil Green, Erik Jonsson, Eugene McDermott, and Patrick Haggerty. These gentlemen were employees at GSI (Geophysical Services Inc) who bought the company they worked for in 1941. They then hired Patrick Haggerty to run their Labor & Manufacturing sector of the company. The L&M division grew rapidly with defense contracts, so GSI was reorganized and then was named Texas Instruments. TI was very active with the military technology. Some of the products made for the military pre-1950 were infrared, radar, and laser guides for missiles. During the 1980’s, TI shifted its focus into the business market with a innovative six sigma quality control method. In 1952, TI bought a patent license from AT&T to produce germanium transistors. In less than a year TI was able to mass produce and sell the transistors which was quite an achievement for that time era.

Two years later TI produced the first commercial silicon transistor. This allowed TI to create the first transistor radio which was carried a high demand for a consumer product. In 1958, Jack Kilby an employee at TI invented the first integrated circuit. In 2000, Kilby won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his remarkable invention. TI also invented the first handheld calculator in 1967 and the single chip microcomputer in 1971. TI is responsible for help creating a whole new industry with the invention of the microprocessor. In 1978, TI had made speech synthesizing microchip. The major outcomes of this are the voice in the movie E.T. and the handheld children’s game Speak & Spell. In 1981, TI entered the home computer market with the TI 99/4 which was a main competitor to the Apple II. TI later then removed itself from the home computer market, but did and does still continue to have a role in the microprocessor industry. TI then went on to focus its business in the semiconductor industry which accounts for 96% of total revenues as of 2006. These products are used in products ranging from cell phones to digital cameras to sound processors. TI’s latest innovation is its DLP (Digital Light Processor) technology used for producing video for televisions and movie theaters. It has said to have more clarity than LCD’s and plasma technology.