Traitorous Eight - Fairchildren

Fairchildren

In research, reporting and popular lore related to Silicon Valley, the term "Fairchildren" has been used to refer to:

• The corporate spin-offs created by former employees of Fairchild Semiconductor. This usage was propagated by historian Leslie Berlin through her 2001 review article, PhD thesis, and biography of Robert Noyce.
• The founders of such firms. This is the earliest usage, e.g., in Tom Wolfe's 1983 profile of Noyce or a 5,000-word profile of Silicon Valley in 1999.
• Former Fairchild Semiconductor employees, as in a 1988 New York Times article.
• The original founders of Fairchild Semiconductor, more commonly known as the traitorous eight. This has been used by the PBS website and a book by Blasi et al.

The spin-off companies, such as AMD, Intel, Intersil and restructured National Semiconductor, were different from those of the east coast and California's electronic companies established in the 1940s and 1950s. "Old Californians" like Beckman and Varian Associates did not trust Wall Street and kept control of their companies for decades, whereas the new companies of the 1960s were created for a quick (within 3–5 years) public sale of shares. Their founders built a business strategy based on the expectations of the investment banks. Another characteristic of Silicon Valley was the mobility of managers and professionals among companies. Partly because of Noyce, Silicon Valley developed a culture of openly denying the hierarchical culture of traditional corporations. People remained faithful to each other, but not to the employer or the industry. Fairchild "alumni" can be found not only in electronics-related, but also financial and public relations, companies.