THE 10 MOST SIGNIFICANT COMPANIES.

This article cites the 10 most significant companies in the electronics industry from 1975-2005. Applied Materials has created a series of products that perform such diverse functions as atomic layer deposition electrochemical plating, ion implantation, rapid thermal processing, chemical mechanical polishing and final wafer inspection. IBM, which files more patents each year than any other company, seems an endless fountain of inventiveness. When it comes to innovation, if anything, IBM suffers from an embarrassment of riches. The telephone number for Intel headquarters ends with the digits 8080, an insider's tribute to the fetal edition of the chip that powers most of today's computers. The seminal 8080 is sometimes cited as an early confirmation of the prescience of Intel cofounder Gordon Moore, who had supposedly predicted that the number of components on a chip would double every 18 months.