The military’s influence on the semiconductor industry started in the 1950s with the desire to make electronic devices more reliable, smaller, more rugged, and easier to repair. During that era there was an unusual openness among competing semiconductor manufacturers, in part encouraged by the military, whose interest was in developing the technology as quickly as possible.

Reliability was at the top of the list. A Bell Labs researcher, briefing the Air Force on the new field of transistors in 1952 said, “We are going to give you a computer that is as reliable as a hammer.” This was quite a promise at a time when even the best vacuum-tube computers were expected to break down at least once a week.

Along with reliability, transistors brought an immediate size reduction compared with older computers, and by the late ’50s there were several competing programs to further miniaturize and simplify circuits for the military. The most advanced was the Micro-Module program, which consolidated standardized circuits into small snap-together modules. Other areas of investigation were “thin-film” designs and molecular electronics, an attempt to leap-frog the semiconductor era into the unknown.

In 1958 Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments invented the integrated circuit, which was added to the military’s options under the name “monolithic circuits.” The integrated circuit was not an immediate hit. A 1962 survey found most military contractors still pursuing modular and thin-film technologies, with only a quarter of the firms looking into integrated circuits.

Two projects are credited with helping bring integrated circuits to the marketplace: NASA’s Apollo Guidance Computer and the Air Force’s Minuteman II ballistic missile.

In 1959, at a time when Jack Kilby was still making integrated circuits by hand, the Air Force provided research and development money for Texas Instruments to set up a production line. Because of this early help, TI was able to produce reliable circuits, which led to their adoption in the guidance computer for the Minuteman II missile.

Each missile contained some 2000 chips of about 20 different types, and in those heady days of nuclear proliferation, there were a lot of missiles. The contract was almost too much for Texas Instruments. They struggled to design the chips on schedule, then to produce them in the quantities the Air Force needed. As difficult as it was, the program helped TI perfect their production techniques. The first prototype chips had sold in 1959 for $450. By 1964, when the Minuteman launched, the price had fallen to $25, low enough to spur their use in commercial products. By the end of the decade, equivalent chips would sell for around $1.25.