VLSI Technology

VLSI Technology, Inc., was a company which designed and manufactured custom and semi-custom Integrated circuits (ICs). The company was based in Silicon Valley, with headquarters at 1109 McKay Drive in San Jose, California, US. Along with LSI Logic, VLSI Technology defined the leading edge of the application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) business, which accelerated the push of powerful embedded systems into affordable products.

VLSI was acquired in June 1999, for about $1 billion by Philips Electronics and is today a part of the Philips spin-off NXP Semiconductors.

The company was founded in 1979, by a trio from Fairchild Semiconductor by way of Synertek – Jack Balletto, Dan Floyd, and Gunnar Wetlesen – and by Doug Fairbairn of Xerox PARC and Lambda (later VLSI Design) magazine.

Alfred J. Stein became the CEO of the company in 1982. Subsequently VLSI built its first fab in San Jose; eventually a second fab was built in San Antonio, Texas. VLSI had its initial public offering in 1983, and was listed on the as (NASDAQ: VLSI). The company was later acquired by Philips and survives to this day as part of NXP Semiconductors.

The original business plan was to be a contract wafer fabrication company, but the venture investors wanted the company to develop IC (Integrated Circuit) design tools to help fill the foundry.

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