Signetics
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Around 1971, the Signetics Corporation introduced the 555-timer circuit. It was called "The IC Time Machine". It was also the first and only commercial IC timer available at the time. Signetics Corporation produced a wide range of integrated circuits, including bipolar and MOS parts. Signetics was eventually acquired by Philips.
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Signetics was started in 1960 or 1961 by among others and an engineer by the name of Dave Allison. Its business was semiconductor manufacturing. Most of the manufacturing was in Sunnyvale California, though there were factories in Orem Utah and New Mexico also. The company eventually became a part of Philips, during which time it reached its manufacturing height at around 1980. From then on the Signetics slowly disintegrated in the face of competition from AMD and Intel. The company is now extinct except perhaps in name only.
Signetics once a major player in semiconductor manufacturing made a variety of devices which included the Dolby circuit, logic, memory and analog circuits, and Motorola clone CPU's, some of which were included in the first Atari video games.
