Editing Fairchild Semiconductor (section)

===1970s===
Hogan's action to hire from Motorola had Motorola file a lawsuit against Fairchild, which the court then decided in Fairchild's favor in 1973. Judge William Copple ruled that Fairchild's results were so unimpressive that it was impossible to assess damages "under any theory". Hogan was dismissed as president the next year, but remained as vice chairman.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/16/technology/16hogan.html?_r=0 |title=Lester Hogan's obituary - New York Times |work=The New York Times |first=Douglas |last=Martin |date=August 16, 2008}}</ref>

In 1973, Fairchild became the first company to produce a commercial [[charge-coupled device]] (CCD) following its invention at [[Bell Labs]]. Digital image sensors are still produced today at their descendant company, Fairchild Imaging. The CCD had a difficult birth, with the devastating effects on Fairchild of the [[1973–75 recession]] that followed on the [[1973 oil crisis]].<ref>
{{cite book |title=We were burning: Japanese entrepreneurs and the forging of the electronic age |author=Bob Johnstone |publisher=Basic Books |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-465-09118-8 |pages=175–211 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PE1bQS9VpWoC&q=1974+recession+ccd+fairchild&pg=PA190}}</ref>

After Intel introduced the [[Intel 8008|8008]] 8-bit microprocessor, Fairchild developed the [[Fairchild F8]] 8-bit microprocessor, which was according to the CPU Museum "in 1977 the F8 was the world's leading microprocessor in terms of CPU sales."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cpu-museum.com/F8_e.htm |title=8-bit Microprocessors - F8 (3850) |access-date=August 18, 2013 |url-status=dead <!--Page technically still exists but content been replaced with a YouTube video titled "What is RAM" --> |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717055953/http://www.cpu-museum.com/F8_e.htm |archive-date=July 17, 2011}}</ref>

In 1976, the company released the first video game system to use ROM cartridges, the Fairchild Video Entertainment System (or VES) later renamed [[Channel F]], using the F8 microprocessor. The system was successful initially, but quickly lost popularity when the [[Atari 2600]] Video Computer System (or VCS) was released.

By the end of the 1970s they had few new products in the pipeline, and increasingly turned to niche markets with their existing product line, notably "hardened" integrated circuits for military and space applications and isoplanar ECL products used in exotic applications like Cray Computers.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://corphist.computerhistory.org/corphist/documents/doc-472a31a31c5fb.pdf |title=The Legacy of Fairchild |work=Computer History Museum’s Visible Storage Exhibit |first=David |last=Laws}}</ref> Fairchild was being operated at a loss, and the bottomline subsisted mostly from licensing of its patents.

In 1979, Fairchild Camera and Instrument was purchased by [[Schlumberger Limited]], an [[oil field]] services company, for $425 million. At this time, Fairchild's intellectual properties, on which Fairchild had been subsisting, were expiring.