Katana VentraIP

Signetics

Signetics Corporation was an American electronics manufacturer specifically established to make integrated circuits.[1] Founded in 1961, they went on to develop a number of early microprocessors and support chips, as well as the widely used 555 timer chip. The company was bought by Philips in 1975 and incorporated in Philips Semiconductors (now NXP).[1]

Industry

Integrated circuits

1961

David Allison, David James, Lionel Kattner, and Mark Weissenstern

Acquired by Philips

Sunnyvale, California
,
USA

The Signetics was probably their best-known new product. Still widely manufactured and used today in original and updated versions, the basic design appears in many simple electronic timers, oscillators, and other basic electronic systems.

555 timer IC

The Signetics NE565 was an pioneering implementation of powerful technology in an IC, which along with the voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) NE566, helped advance digital communications.

phase-locked loop

The was an 8-bit microprocessor introduced in the early 1970s and used in several video games and game systems (e.g. the Arcadia 2001).[4] and in the early telesoftware broadcasts.

Signetics 2650

The was a bipolar microprocessor developed by Scientific Micro Systems but manufactured by Signetics starting in 1976. It was mostly used as a controller chip due to its limited instruction set and its high speed.

Signetics 8X300

The Signetics 2513[6] was a character generator chip used in the TV Typewriter,[7] Apple I, and early versions of the Apple II, as well as Atari's earliest arcade games.

[5]

The Signetics 82S100 FPLA (Field Programmable Logic Array) was the first commercially successful user , the forerunner of the modern FPGA.[8][9]

programmable logic device

a widely used audio op amp, now generic and produced by many other manufacturers. According to one 1993 article, NE5532 was "the standard audio op amp to which others are compared".[10]

NE5532

an operational transconductance amplifier, still in production by NXP Semiconductors and also generically made by other manufacturers; it is given as a classic OTA example in a number of textbooks.[11][12]

NE5517

Signetics introduced a number of innovative analog and digital integrated circuits which became de facto standard products widely used in mass-produced electronics. Freely-distributed application notes published by Signetics were key in educating students and practicing engineers in the usefulness and simplicity of their ICs. Some designs remain iconic and are still used today in basic electronics lab exercises.[2]

Write-only memory (joke)

Lécuyer, C. Making Silicon Valley: Innovation and the Growth of High Tech, 1930-1970, MIT Press, 2006.  0-262-12281-2

ISBN

Signetics.com: official Signetics website

Chipdb.org: Signetics