The Forgotten Story of the First Automated Fab: In 1970, an IBM Middle Manager had a Vision: A Finished Chip in One Day

In 1970, Bill Harding envisioned a fully automated wafer-fabrication line that would produce integrated circuits in less than one day. Not only was such a goal gutsy 54 years ago, it would be bold even in today's billion-dollar fabs, where the fabrication time of an advanced IC is measured in weeks, not days. Back then, ICs, such as random-access memory chips, were typically produced in a monthlong stop-and-go march through dozens of manual work stations.