American Microsystems

American Microsystems, Inc., or AMI, was a semiconductor manufacturer formed in Santa Clara, California in 1966 by several former employees of General Micro-electronics. They were one of the first companies to focus on the metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) construction technique, which came to dominate the industry by the early 1970s.

Through the 1970s they concentrated on custom design work and production for a wide variety of customers, as well as selling their own microcontroller designs and calculator and electronic watch chipsets. As other companies entered the market for these products, they introduced simple microprocessors, including the S9209 which was the first to sell for under $10.

In the early 1970s, AMI held about 50% of the US MOS IC marketshare. Borg-Warner took an equity stake in 1977, but AMI was then purchased outright by Gould Electronics in 1982. Gould was in turn purchased by Japan Energy in 1988, who ran the AMI division under their GA-Tech division. AMI was purchased from GA-Tech by Francisco Partners in 2000, and they renamed it AMI Semiconductor, or AMIS, in January 2001. AMIS was in turn purchased by onsemi in March 2008, and no longer operates as a separate company.