Topic
8 facts from 3 episodes, in date order. These are what speakers said on the shows, each linked to the moment it was said. They aren't independently verified.
1958
On the IBM 7090 project, IBM's own plant had about a 10% yield while Texas Instruments' line had close to zero when Chang arrived.
“IBM's own plant is churning out transistors with about a 10% yield, which means that of every 100 chips that they turn out of the plant, 90% of them fail”
1958
Morris Chang raised the yield at Texas Instruments' plant to 20% within about four months, better than IBM's own line.
“After about four months, he gets the yields at the TI plant up to 20%.”
late 1960s
Chang hired Boston Consulting Group, which proposed pricing low at the start to drive volume and speed up learning on yields, an approach called learning curve pricing.
“He hires BCG and they come up with the idea of actually pricing low to start to drive this volume and speed up the yield curve.”
1970s
Morris Chang says Boston Consulting Group founder Bruce Henderson assigned Bill Bain to work mostly at Texas Instruments, where Bain partnered with Chang on learning-curve work.
“And Bruce Henderson then assigned Bill Bain to work most of the time at TI.”
1972
Morris Chang was promoted in 1972 to a vice president at Texas Instruments running the entire semiconductor business.
“Morris gets promoted to VP at TI, one level below the CEO, running the entire semiconductor business.”
1980
IBM chose Intel, not Texas Instruments, to supply the processor for its first PC, which the host believes was the 8088.
“Instead, of course, it was Intel. I think it was the 8088 that was chosen for that first one.”
Undated
When Rich Templeton took over Texas Instruments, about 40 percent of its business was wireless with Nokia as its largest customer, and he reduced that exposure to zero.
“they have 40 of the business geared towards wireless and nokia was a massive customer their largest customer and he bled that down to zero”
Undated
Brinton Johns says Texas Instruments has higher operating margins than Microsoft.
“here's a good trivia question who has higher operating margins texas instruments or microsoft right because i ask it you know the answer is it's ti”
Episodes