Building the Fabless/Foundry Business Model [Guest Editorial]

From the beginnings of the semiconductor era in the 1950s, and through its first three decades, semiconductor producers were vertically integrated, including both product design and manufacturing. This was natural because everything was new. Materials, devices, manufacturing processes, and design methods were not standardized across the industry. All were evolving rapidly but had to be closely integrated at each point in time to produce useful products. The necessary coordination occurred successfully during these years only within the boundaries of single enterprises.