digital semiconductor alumni

NOTE,  HUMANS!    email addresses contained herein contain a tilde ~ in place of @ that should be substituted if you use the addresses. This avoids harvesting by email web search software.


What year did HLO open;    when were 4" wafers introduced in HLO? SEE HISTORY AT END

New 4/18/01: pictures and DS history at very end.
Names updated 10-Feb-2003, some have been added, but I have many more to go.

Updates compiled by Beth Zeranski; web design by Will Sherwood (sherwoodphoto.com ; SherwoodHosting.com) web & graphic design; commercial, architectural, portrait photography.

Welcome to the home page of the Digital Semiconductor Alumni club. We hope this page will be a useful tool to find the current whereabouts of friends who have left the Digital Equipment Corporation business unit formerly known as Digital Semiconductor.


  CHAS chip assembler tool
software sacred burial ground,
high atop silicon mountain

Words to "Amazing CHAS" sung at the CHAS funeral 7/1986
Words by Tim Aldridge, harmonization by Will Sherwood to
the tune "Amazing Grace"; also sung at the funeral was
"Shall We Gather at the Wafer"


Amazing CHAS how glad the sound that it's your time to leave!
I once was lost  'cause I used CHAS, now KATIE lets me see.

'Twas CHAS that taught my heart to fear, How do you spell "relief"?
How precious did that CHAS appear make like a tree and leaf.

Thro' many bugs and many bombs, I have already come
'Tis CHAS that caused us all to want to end it with a gun.

When we've been there ten thousand years, Our chip yet to be done,
We've hair of gray and CHAS did raise, Alas we were once young!

  

Each entry may have an individual's company name; web page link; e-mail address; and one or two sentences describing their company, work, or interests.

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EV4 in a pin grid array

(Alphabetized by first name)




21040 in plastic package with bogus waveforms


One of those fast Alphas!


Technique for trying to shrink chip size

Alumni last updated Feb 2003




MicroVAX (tm)  team celebration in Newport  (140K)

How many people can you still recognize?


The contents of this page and views of current and former employees are in no way connected with Digital Equipment Corporation or Compaq Computer Corporation..


1972 A small group of engineers begin
efforts to explore the use of LSI
semiconductor technology in the PDP8.
1973 The LSI organization (as it was then
known) grows to 15 employees in the Mill; Rubylith was used for creating layout masks.
This group begins to survey the
industry and select vendors for the
design and manufacture of semicon-
ductor products to meet Digital's
needs.
~ The PDP8B project is cancelled
as result of growth of the PDP- 11
architecture. Western Digital is
contracted to design and manu-
facture the LSI-11 chip set
~ Henry Lemaire takes responsibility for of all LSI activities
1974 Digital rents space in the Sprague
Electric plant in Worcester, charters
an LS1 manufacturing organization
to become a second source for
Digital's key strategic semiconductor products.
1975 Western Digital has difficulty
meeting need for LSI-11 chips. The
LSI manufacturing group in
Worcester delivers its first production parts. This crucial performance
results in plans to significantly
expand internal capability.
1976-7 Digital commits to build 250K sq.
ft. plant in Hudson for LS1 manufacturing with a site code "HL" in
memory of the late Henry Lemaire. Ground
breaking ceremonies are held on
November 9th, 1977.
1978-9 Continuous production of LSI-11
chips and initial shipments of F-11
(LSI-11/23 modules, PDP-11/23,
PDP-11/24) from the Worcester
manufacturing site.
~ Design efforts underway for the
Bipolar Comet Gate Arrays
(VAX 11/750).
~ Initial occupancy of Hudson site
(HL01 phaser: 125k sq. ft. of
office, labs, and clean room)
occurs in 8/79. Start-up teams
begin efforts to bring up two 3"
wafer fab lines, one dedicated to
MOS products, the other bipolar
products.
1980 HLO I completed. 460 employees
added, total now population 1186
(including design engineering).
The first comet Gate Arrays are
shipped as fab lines achieve
qualification. Production is phased down in Worcester as
Hudson ramps volume output.
Efforts begin to transfer to the
Motorola Mosaic process
(Bipolar ECL) to the Hudson
Bipolar fab.
1981 An addition housing the E-Beam
Mask Shop (19k sq. ft.) is completed.
~ The Bipolar fab line is upgraded
to run 4" wafers.
~ Hudson begins shipment of the
CCL (Custom Cell Library)
bipolar chips for VAX 11/780
SBI Bus, VT1OO, QBUS, and
RA80 disks.
1982 HL02 is completed, adding approximately 308k sq. ft. and 800 offices.
~ All MOS and Bipolar processes
are consolidated into one fab line.
The other fab line begins change-over to run the ZMOS process,
which will be required by the
Microvax chip set.
~ The current MOS process is
upgraded to 4" wafers.
~ The T- I I chip, the first single
chip microprocessor internally
designed and manufactured, is
shipped. Applications include the
Falcon module, KXTO I I and
several terminals. The first
GADS chips are shipped for use
in the PR0350.
1983 Construction begins on the third
Hudson fab line (45k sq. ft.). This
fab line is an order of magnitude
cleaner than the other two fabs,
required by more advanced CMOS
processes.
The first MCA (Motorola Mosaic
Process) devices are shipped for
use in the VAX 8600 and VAX
8650.
1984 The first Viper chip (Intel HMOS
process) is shipped for use in the
VT330 and VT340 terminals. Also
shipped the first product, J-11 FPA
for the KDJ 11 A module, PDP-11/
83 and PDP- 11/84, on the first
internally developed wafer fab
process (ZMOS).
1985 New 1OK sq. ft. chemical storage
facility added to HLO 1.
Begin delivery of the MCA
Gate Array chip set for the
VAX 8500, 8700, and 8800.
First deliveries of the Microvax
chip set (ZMOS process), for
the UVAXII and UVAX GPX.
Production is also started on the
V-11 chip set for the VAX 8200
and BIIC chip set for BI based
systems. These chips are also
manufactured using the ZMOS
wafer fab processes.
1986 New 5K sq. ft. Clean Room Test
Room added for advanced products.
Added the Phoenix chip
(RF30M RF71 disks) to the
ZMOS product set. The first
products using the 2.Ou CMOS
I wafer fab process are shipped.
The chips are used in the black-and-white VX200.
1987 The first CVAX devices are
shipped for use in the VAX 3500,
3600 and 6200 systems. Vaxstar
color chips for the VS2000 are
delivered. MCA chips for the VAX
8810, 8820, 8830 and 8840 are
added to the MCA product set.
Groundbreaking for South Queensferry.
1988 Finalizing the production qualification ofthe 1.5u CMOS 2 process
for the Rigel CPU chip set which
will be used in the Calypso/Rigel
and various workstation products.
Hudson expands to over 2,300 employees.
1992 SEG Jerusalem broke ground for new VLSI facility, having been in operation for 7 years;
FAB6 broke ground. Alpha architecture introduced.
1994 First lot through FAB6; DS becomes a business unit
1996 FX!32 I86 emulator released for Alpha. CMOS6 introduced
1998 21264 introduced; Intel buys HLO, ADG moves to SHR
1999 ADG sold to Intel, becomes MMDC (Massachusetts Microprocessor Design Center)
2002 HP merges with Compaq
2003 EV7 designs continue taping out, but nearing completion.