Wafer Scale - Trilogy Systems: Part 2 - by Babbage
In Part 1 we saw how Trilogy Systems was founded by Gene Amdahl in 1979 and went on to raise over $275m (c$830m in 2024 dollars) in funding to build ‘IBM plug-compatible’ mainframes. In 1983, the company revealed the ‘breakthrough’ technology it would use to overtake IBM: Wafer-Scale Integration. In place of the modules IBM used in its mainframes, each with 100 smaller chips and other components, Trilogy would use complete 2.5-inch silicon wafers.
Readers will have guessed, from the fact that there are no Trilogy ‘Wafer Scale’ machines (even in museums!), that Trilogy failed in its mission to build its revolutionary mainframe designs. So in Part 2 of the story of Trilogy, we’ll see how and why the company failed.
In a section for paid subscribers at the end of this part, we’ll reflect on what lessons can be learned from the story of Trilogy.
''They thought that with me there,'' says Amdahl, ''it wasn't really risky.'' But it was. ''It was risky for reasons I hadn't originally known how to evaluate, and in retrospect can't fully evaluate either,''
