Editing National Semiconductor (section)

===Founding===
National Semiconductor<ref>Short History of National Semiconductor in International Directory of Company Histories,  Volume 69 (1998)  by Jonathan Martin,  David Salamie,  Nelson Rhodes</ref> was founded in [[Danbury, Connecticut]], by Dr. Bernard J. Rothlein on May 27, 1959, when he and seven colleagues, Edward N. Clarke, Joseph J. Gruber, Milton Schneider, Robert L. Hopkins, Robert L. Koch, Richard R. Rau and Arthur V. Siefert, left their employment at the semiconductor division of [[Sperry Corporation|Sperry Rand Corporation]].

The founding of the new company was followed by Sperry Rand filing a lawsuit against National Semiconductor for patent infringement.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://cases.justia.com/us-court-of-appeals/F2/288/245/185330/|title=United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit. - 288 F.2d 245 provides a history of the suit by Sperry Rand vs Bernard J Rothlein et al.}}</ref> By 1965, as it was reaching the courts, the preliminaries of the lawsuit had caused the stock value of National to be depressed. The depressed stock values allowed Peter J Sprague<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sprague.com/pjs|title=Peter J Sprague's autobiographical web page}}</ref> to invest heavily in the company with Sprague's family funds. Sprague also relied on further financial backing from a pair of West Coast investment firms and a New York underwriter to take control as the chairman of National Semiconductor. At that time Sprague was 27 years old. Jeffrey S. Young characterized the era as the beginning of [[venture capital]]ism.<ref name="Jeffrey S. Young page 127">Forbes Greatest Technology Stories By Jeffrey S. Young, page 127</ref>

That same year National Semiconductor acquired Molectro. Molectro was founded in 1962 in Santa Clara, California, by J. Nall and D. Spittlehouse, who were formerly employed at [[Fairchild Camera and Instrument]] Corporation. The acquisition also brought to National Semiconductor two experts in linear semiconductor technologies, [[Bob Widlar|Robert Widlar]] and Dave Talbert, who were also formerly employed at Fairchild.  The acquisition of Molectro provided National with the technology to launch itself in the fabrication and manufacture of monolithic integrated circuits.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.computerhistory.org/semiconductor/companies.html|title=Short description of Molectro acquisition in Computer History Museum}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.computerhistory.org/semiconductor/timeline/1964-analog.html|title=Commentary on Bob Widlar, Dave Talbert and others in Computer History Museum}}</ref>

In 1967, Sprague hired five top executives away from Fairchild, among whom were [[Charles E. Sporck]] and [[Pierre Lamond]]. At the time of Sporck's hiring, [[Robert Noyce]] was de facto head of semiconductor operations at Fairchild and Sporck was his operations manager.

Sporck was appointed president and CEO of National. To make the deal better for Sporck's hiring and appointment at half his former salary at Fairchild, Sporck was allotted a substantial share of National's stock. Sporck took four of his personnel from Fairchild with him as well as three others from TI, Perkin-Elmer, and Hewlett-Packard to form a new eight-man team at National Semiconductor.<ref name="Jeffrey S. Young page 127"/> Sporck had been Widlar's superior at Fairchild before Widlar left Fairchild to join Molectro after a compensation dispute with Sporck.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://silicongenesis.stanford.edu/transcripts/rostky.htm|title=Interview with George Rostky|access-date=2008-07-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121120200239/http://silicongenesis.stanford.edu/transcripts/rostky.htm|archive-date=2012-11-20|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1968, National shifted its headquarters from Danbury, Connecticut, to [[Santa Clara, California]]. However, like many companies, National retained its registration as a [[Delaware General Corporation Law|Delaware corporation]], for legal and financial expediency.

Over the years National Semiconductor acquired several companies like [[Fairchild Semiconductor]] (1987), and [[Cyrix]] (1997). However, over time National Semiconductor spun off these acquisitions. Fairchild Semiconductor became a separate company again in 1997, and the Cyrix microprocessors division was sold to [[VIA Technologies]] of Taiwan in 1999.

From 1997 to 2002, National enjoyed a large amount of publicity and awards with the development of the Cyrix Media Center, Cyrix WebPad, WebPad Metro and National Origami PDA concept devices created by National's Conceptual Products Group. Based largely on the success of the WebPad, National formed the Information Appliance Division (highly integrated processors & "internet gadgets") in 1998. The Information Appliance Division was sold to AMD in 2003.<ref>{{Cite web|date=6 August 2003|title=AMD buys National Semi's Geode business|url=https://www.infoworld.com/article/2677449/amd-buys-national-semi-s-geode-business.html|access-date=20 October 2020|website=infoworld}}</ref>

Other businesses dealing in such products as digital wireless chipsets, [[image sensor]]s, and PC I/O chipsets have also been recently closed down or sold off as National has reincarnated itself as a high-performance analog semiconductor company.