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Public ()
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Technology for Innovators
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Dallas , Texas
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USA
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Tom Engibous , Chairman<br> Rich Templeton , President & CEO<br> Kevin March , CFO<br> Brian Bonner , CIO
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Semiconductors , Electronics
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Integrated Circuit s, Digital Signal Processor s, Digital Light Processors (DLP) , RFID , Calculator s
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$1426 billion USD ( 2006 )2
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$434 billion USD ( 2006 )
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30,986 ( 2007 ) <!-- April 2007 -->3
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(), better known in the electronics industry (and popularly) as '''TI''', is an
American company based in
Dallas ,
Texas ,
USA , renowned for developing and commercializing
Semiconductor and
Computer technology. TI is the No. 3 manufacturer of semiconductors worldwide after
Intel and
Samsung , and is the top supplier of chips for
Cellular Handsets , as well as the No. 1 producer of
Digital Signal Processor s (DSPs) and analog semiconductors . Other focus areas include chips for
Broadband Modem s,
PC Peripherals , digital consumer devices,
Telecommunication infrastructure, and
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID).
As Of 2006 , the company was listed at number 167 on the
Fortune 500 .
4
.]]
Texas Instruments was founded by
Cecil H. Green ,
J. Erik Jonsson ,
Eugene McDermott , and
Patrick E. Haggerty . On
December 6 ,
1941 , they purchased
Geophysical Service Incorporated (GSI), a pioneering provider of
Seismic Exploration services to the
Petroleum industry. During
World War II , GSI built
Electronics for the
U.S. Army Signal Corps and the
U.S. Navy . After the war, GSI continued to produce electronics, and in
1951 the company changed its name to Texas Instruments; GSI became a wholly owned subsidiary of the new company. An early success story for TI-GSI came in the 1950s when GSI was able (under a
Top Secret government contract) to monitor the
Soviet Union 's underground
Nuclear Weapon s
Testing from outcrop
Bedrock found in
Oklahoma .
In for the almost-simultaneous invention of the microprocessor.)
TI also continued to manufacture equipment for use in the seismic industry, and GSI continued to provide seismic services. After selling (and repurchasing) GSI, TI finally sold the company to
Halliburton in 1988, at which point GSI ceased to exist as a separate entity.
TI had two interesting problems with engineering and product development after the introduction of the semiconductor and the microprocessor.
Firstly, most of the chemicals, machinery and technologies needed to create semiconductors did not exist so TI had to "invent" them.
Secondly, the market was small for TI electronic components in the early days so TI had to "invent" uses. For example, TI created the first wall mounted, computer controlled, home set-back thermostat in the late '70s but nobody would buy it mostly because of its cost. TI started an Industrial Controls division which built automated process control computers used in the paint and soup industry and was very successful. This business was eventually sold to
Siemens AG in 1991. TI turned to military and government uses and had many electro-mechanical devices used in the
Apollo rocket and
Moon Lander .
TI continued to be active in the consumer electronics market through the 1970s and 1980s. In 1978, Texas Instruments introduced the first single chip speech synthesizer and incorporated it in a product called the
Speak & Spell , which was later immortalized in the movie ''
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial ''. Several spinoffs, such as the Speak & Read and Speak & Math, were introduced soon thereafter.
In June 1981, TI entered the
Home Computer market with the
TI99/4 , a competitor to such entries as the
Apple II ,
Tandy /
RadioShack TRS-80 and the later
Atari 400 /
800 series,
Commodore VIC-20 and
Commodore 64 . It discontinued the
TI-99/4A (1981), the sequel to the 99/4, in late 1983 amidst an intense
Price War versus Commodore,
Atari , and others. At the 1983 Winter CES TI showed models 99/2 and the
Compact Computer 40 (CC-40) , the latter aimed at professional users. The
TI Professional (
1983 ) ultimately joined the ranks of the many unsuccessful
MS-DOS and
X86 -based—but
Non-compatible —competitors to the
IBM PC . (Ironically, the founders of
Compaq all came from TI.) The company for years successfully made and sold
PC-compatible Laptops before withdrawing from the market and selling its product line to
Acer in 1997.
TI was also active in the
Defense Electronics market in the 1970s and 1980s, designing and manufacturing airborne
Radars and
EO sensor systems,
Missiles , and laser-guided bombs. As the defense industry consolidated, TI sold its defense business to
Raytheon in 1997.
Texas Instruments was a major
OEM of
Sensor , control, protection, and
RFID products for the automotive, appliance, aircraft, and other industries. The S&C division was headquartered in Attleboro, Massachusetts.
TI announced on Monday, January 9, 2006 that
Bain Capital LLC , a private equity firm, would purchase the Sensors & Controls division for $3.0 billion in cash.
TI sold its software division (along with its main product, the
IEF ) to
Sterling Software in 1997. It is now part of
Computer Associates .
TI has always been among the Top 10 of the semiconductor sales leaders. In 2005, TI was number 3, after
Intel and
Samsung , and ahead of
Toshiba and
STMicroelectronics .
For more information, refer to the .
TI has the largest market share in the analog semiconductor industry which has an estimated market TAM exceeding US$37 Billion. TI is reported to have 14% of the market, leading ahead of competitors ST Microelectronics, Infineon and Philips according to latest reports
{Link without Title} from .
Today, TI is made up of two main divisions: Semiconductors (SC) and Educational Technology (ET).
Semiconductor products account for approximately 96 percent of TI's revenues. TI has a market leading position in many different product areas, including
Digital Signal Processor s in the
TMS320 series, high speed
Digital-to-analog and
Analog-to-digital converters,
Power Management solutions, and high performance
Analog Circuits . Wireless communications has been a primary focus for TI, with around 50 percent of all
Cellular Phones sold world-wide containing TI chips. TI also manufactures other semiconductor products, ranging from application-specific
Integrated Circuits to
Microcontrollers .
The Wireless Terminal Business Unit (WTBU) of the Semiconductor division is the world's largest supplier of wireless chipsets. Mobile Connectivity Solutions (MCS), located in Israel is also part of WTBU, developing chips for Bluetooth and WLAN.
Another business unit of the Semiconductor division called
Application Specific Products (ASP) develops specific products that cater to a broad range of DSP applications, such as
Digital Still Camera s,
DSL modems,
Cable Modem s,
Voice Over IP (VOIP), streaming media,
Speech Compression And Recognition ,
Wireless LAN and gateway products (residential and
Central Office ), and
RFID .
TI is the sole source for
Digital Light Processing micro-mirror components, a technology used in video projectors and televisions as well as movie theatres or cinemas
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TI makes a broad range of digital signal processors and a suite of tools called
EXpressDSP , used to develop applications on these chips.
Others
TMS320C33, TMS320C3x, TMS320C4x, TMS320C5x and TMS320C8x - multiprocessor dsp.
Most of the older DSPs are still available through
TI's military dsp site
- OMAP microprocessors are designed for multimedia applications. Some contain C55, ARM7, ARM9, or ARM11 cores.
- DaVinci microprocessors contain a C64 series core, an ARM9 core, and specialized video processing peripherals.
Texas Instruments is also notable for its calculator range, the
TI-30 being one of the most popular early
Calculator s. TI has also developed a line of
Graphing Calculator s, the first being the
TI-81 , and most popular being the
TI-83 Plus (with the
TI-84 Plus being an updated equivalent). TI is often seen as the competitor to
Hewlett-Packard in this regard, with fierce loyalties often arising.
In the
1990s , with the advent of TI's graphing calculator series, programming became popular among some students. The TI-8x series of calculators (beginning with the
TI-81 ) came with a built-in BASIC interpreter, through which simple programs could be created. The
TI-85 was the first TI calculator to allow assembly programming (via a shell called "ZShell"), and the
TI-83 was the first in the series to receive native assembly. While the earlier BASIC programs were relatively simple applications or small games, the modern assembly-based programs rival what one might find on a
Game Boy or
PDA .
Around the same time that these programs were first being written, personal web pages were becoming popular (through services such as
Angelfire and
GeoCities ), and programmers began creating websites to host their work, along with tutorials and other calculator-relevant information. This led to the formation of TI calculator
Webrings , and eventually a few large communities, including the now-defunct TI-Files, and active
ticalc.org . Ticalc.org is now seen as the authoritative source for programming for TI calculators, and at the site, one can find thousands of applications (including games, educational programs, and even simple operating environments), programming tutorials, calculator news, and discussion forums, among other things.
TI graphing calculators generally fall into two distinct groups, those powered by the
Zilog Z80 and those running on the
Motorola 68000 series. Although a derivative of the Z80 was in the original
Game Boy , the 68000 is far more powerful, and therefore better suited for gaming and processor intensive applications. The 68K calculators, which include the
TI-89 /
Titanium ,
TI-92 /
Plus , and
Voyage 200 , are generally thought of more highly among TI community members than the Z80s. However, the newest of the Z80 series, the
TI-83 Plus and
TI-84 Plus Silver Edition , are becoming very popular with students new to the product line.
In 2007, Texas Instruments was awarded the Manufacturer of the Year for Global Supply Chain Excellence by World Trade magazine. "Manufacturer of the Year", World Trade, Vol. 20., No. 5, May 2007, p. 20.
