Production Attempts
Many companies attempted to develop WSI production systems in the 1970s and 80s, but all failed. TI and ITT both saw it as a way to develop complex pipelined microprocessors and re-enter a market where they were losing ground, but neither released any products.
Gene Amdahl also attempted to develop WSI as a method of making a supercomputer, starting Trilogy Systems in 1980 and garnering investments from Groupe Bull, Sperry Rand and Digital Equipment Corporation, who (along with others) provided an estimated $230 million in financing. The design called for a 2.5" square chip with 1200 pins on the bottom.
The effort was plagued by a series of disasters, including floods which delayed the construction of the plant and later ruined the clean-room interior. After burning through about 1/3 of the capital with nothing to show for it, Amdahl eventually declared the idea would only work with a 99.99% yield, which wouldn't happen for 100 years. He used Trilogy's remaining seed capital to buy Elxsi, a maker of VAX-compatible machines, in 1985. The Trilogy efforts were eventually ended and "became" Elxsi.
Read more about this topic: Wafer-scale Integration
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