American chip industry
The fabless revolution
There was once a saying in Silicon Valley: "Real Men Have Fabs" - that is, real semiconductor companies are those that have their own fabrication ('fab') plants or factories. But in the late 1980s, this idea changed completely with the help of a new generation. These entrepreneurs used to design chips themselves, but outsource the manufacturing work, whose main partners were companies like TSMC. This newly born business model is called the 'fabless model'.
Semiconductor war with Japan: Silicon Valley's uphill task
AMD CEO Jerry Sanders entered the chip business belligerently, especially against his old rival Intel. But in the 1980s, instead of Intel, Japan became his new and even more formidable rival.
Silicon Valley crisis: Rise of Japan and rivalry with America
America's semiconductor industry, once the pride of Silicon Valley, suddenly found itself in the midst of fierce competition in the 1980s. Japanese companies were surging like an irresistible wave. One silent but important hero in this story was Hewlett-Packard (HP) executive Richard Anderson. He set strict criteria for which memory chips HP would buy. Therefore, the fate of semiconductor vendors depended on his decisions.