Abstract :
This model was not replicated among the vertically organized companies, the prime example of which was IBM. IBM´s voracious appetite for electronic components provided a market that supported a major manufacturing company of its own. The Solid Logic Technology (SLT), developed by IBM for the System 360 line of computers, demonstrated that a technology that would have been unsuccessful in a competitive marketplace could become a major money-maker for the company. The success of SLT eventually became an obstacle to the introduction of the much more promising MOS integrated circuit into the company´s products. Bas-sett tells of the infighting that went on between the Research Division that was in close touch with the promise of this new technology and the Components Division that was the internal bipolar technology developer. The Components Division repeatedly reviewed Research´s push for MOS integrated circuit technology and tried to shut it down, claiming that the bipolar technology would satisfy all of the company´s requirements for the foreseeable future. However, their vision did not look far enough.
