"They're very strong in memory. Didn't do very much in microprocessors or digital signal processing"
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Kilby’s line lands like a polite knife: measured, technical, and quietly devastating. On the surface, he’s describing a company or camp that excels at memory chips but lags in microprocessors and digital signal processing. Underneath, it’s a diagnosis of a whole strategic worldview: being great at storing information is not the same as being great at using it.
The phrasing matters. “Very strong” sounds like a compliment, but it’s immediately narrowed by “in memory,” turning praise into a box. Then comes the deflationary punch: “Didn’t do very much.” Kilby doesn’t say “failed” or “couldn’t”; he says they simply didn’t. It implies choice, complacency, or a corporate immune system that rejects unfamiliar bets. Coming from Kilby - a foundational figure in the integrated circuit era - that restraint is the point. Scientists with credibility don’t need to shout; they can downgrade you with a clause.
Contextually, this is the late-20th-century pivot when “electronics” stopped being about components and started being about architectures and algorithms. Memory was a lucrative, scalable commodity; microprocessors and DSP were leverage points that shaped entire ecosystems: personal computing, communications, control systems. Kilby’s subtext is that the future belongs to whoever sets the logic and the standards, not whoever sells the most reliable storage.
It’s also a comment on innovation culture. Memory rewards manufacturing excellence and incremental improvement. Processors and DSP demand risk, software thinking, and the willingness to cannibalize yesterday’s cash cow. Kilby is sketching the difference between being a supplier and being a platform.
The phrasing matters. “Very strong” sounds like a compliment, but it’s immediately narrowed by “in memory,” turning praise into a box. Then comes the deflationary punch: “Didn’t do very much.” Kilby doesn’t say “failed” or “couldn’t”; he says they simply didn’t. It implies choice, complacency, or a corporate immune system that rejects unfamiliar bets. Coming from Kilby - a foundational figure in the integrated circuit era - that restraint is the point. Scientists with credibility don’t need to shout; they can downgrade you with a clause.
Contextually, this is the late-20th-century pivot when “electronics” stopped being about components and started being about architectures and algorithms. Memory was a lucrative, scalable commodity; microprocessors and DSP were leverage points that shaped entire ecosystems: personal computing, communications, control systems. Kilby’s subtext is that the future belongs to whoever sets the logic and the standards, not whoever sells the most reliable storage.
It’s also a comment on innovation culture. Memory rewards manufacturing excellence and incremental improvement. Processors and DSP demand risk, software thinking, and the willingness to cannibalize yesterday’s cash cow. Kilby is sketching the difference between being a supplier and being a platform.
Quote Details
| Topic | Technology |
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