History of Texas Instruments (TI) is the path from a small geophysical company searching for oil to one of the pillars of the global semiconductor industry. Founded in 1930, it has witnessed and created key stages of the technological revolution. From Oil Exploration to Electronics The company was founded on May 16, 1930 in Dallas (Texas) under the name Geophysical Service Inc. (GSI). Initially, it was engaged in seismic exploration for the oil industry, using reflected signals to locate deposits. During World War II, GSI switched to defense orders, developing equipment for submarine detection and radar systems. In 1951, the company was reorganized and received its current name — Texas Instruments Incorporated. The Age of Semiconductors and Inventing the Future The transition to large-scale electronics began in 1952 with the acquisition of a license for the production of transistors, and by 1954, TI had established mass production of the first commercial silicon transistor. The main breakthrough came in 1958 when TI engineer Jack Kilby invented the integrated circuit (microchip). This invention, for which he later received the Nobel Prize, became the foundation of modern electronics. In the same decade, TI released the first transistor radio. Calculators, Microcontrollers, and Digital Signal Processing In 1967, TI introduced the world's first electronic handheld calculator. In the 1970s, the company made two more breakthroughs: in 1971, the first single-chip microcontroller (MCU) was created, and in 1978, the first single-chip digital signal processor (DSP) was developed in the Speak & Spell toy. In the subsequent decades, TI focused on analog and embedded solutions. The DLP (Digital Light Processing) technology emerged in the 1980s, which is now used in projectors and movie screenings. In the 1990s, the famous ultra-low power consumption microcontroller MSP430 was created. Key Milestones in the Table ... Read more