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There
must be a wide range of applications for the 555.
Yes. Several spacecraft have
them. And, many, many toys. That’s the range. It’s a bipolar product, which is pretty
hardy, so nothing had to be done (for space applications), except they test
it. So, they write a special test
spec for some applications. Not the
way it is made, there is no difference in the manufacture of it, but there
is a difference in testing, like temperature cycling - they torture the poor little thing.
Let’s
discuss your background now and how you came to develop the 555. You had worked at PR Mallory before
joining Signetics?
Well, yes. I spent six years at PR Mallory, in the
research lab. When I realized they didn’t want to go into production, I
interviewed every single company that made linear integrated circuits. Sylvania, Westinghouse, Texas
Instruments, Motorola, Fairchild, Signetics, Sprague, and then decided on
Signetics, which was a rapidly growing company. They had a chance to surpass Fairchild, which was number one
then. But they badly stumbled two years later. They started losing money like crazy. So I resigned – I took a leave of
absence to write a book. I told
them I didn’t want to come back, but I would work as a consultant and
independent designer, and I proposed the 555 design.
Go
To Camenzind Oral History,Page 4
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