Artifact Details

Title

Schreiner, Bob (Robert) oral history

Catalog Number

102746760

Type

Document

Description

In this oral history, Bob Schreiner recounts the founding, strategy, early success and eventual demise of Synertek. Bob left Fairchild Semiconductor in 1971 and founded Synertek with funding from four systems companies. His vision was to build custom chips for a variety of different applications. Although a significant part of their revenue eventually was from these custom chips, Synertek also became a major source for microprocessors (6502) and ROM chips for companies like Atari and Apple Computer.

Realizing he would need a significant capital infusion to realize his ultimate goal, he eventually sold the company to Honeywell in about 1979. Although this was to be a “hands off” deal where Synertek would be able to continue to operate independently, the reality was quite different. The deal eventually soured and Shreiner left the company along with most of the other top talent.

Date

2013-06-10

Contributor

Dennis, Eric, Videographer
Diamond, Stephen L., Interviewer
Schreiner, Robert (Bob), Interviewee

Publisher

Computer History Museum

Place of Publication

Mountain View, California

Extent

25 p.

Copyright Holder

Computer History Museum

Category

Transcription

Subject

semiconductor history; Synertek; 6502 (Microprocessor); Jobs, Steve; Honeywell; Zilog, Inc.; Fairchild Semiconductor; Atari

Collection Title

Oral history collection

Lot Number

X6873.2013