Combine Microelectronics Erfurt

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
VEB Kombinat Mikroelektronik Erfurt (KME)
legal form publicly-owned business
founding January 1, 1978
resolution June 28, 1990
Reason for dissolution Conversion into an AG
( PTC-electronic AG )
this was liquidated by 2004
Seat Erfurt , German Democratic Republic
Germany Democratic Republic 1949GDR 
management two general directors
Number of employees 60,000 (1989)
Branch Electrical engineering , electronics , microelectronics , hardware

The VEB Kombinat Mikroelektronik Erfurt (short: KME ) was a Kombinat of publicly owned enterprises in the GDR , which was founded in 1978 after the dissolution of the VVB Bauelemente und Vakuumtechnik (BuV). The headquarters of the combine was the Funkwerk Erfurt (short: FWE), which in 1983 was given the name VEB Mikroelektronik "Karl Marx" (short: MME). The establishment of the combine was a result of the on 23/24. June 1977 by the Central Committee of the SED “For the further implementation of the resolutions of the IX. Party congress of the SED in the field of electrical engineering and electronics ”.

The Combine Microelectronics Erfurt together with the Combine Electronic Components Teltow , the VEB Combine Robotron Dresden and the Combine VEB Carl Zeiss Jena formed the industrial basis of the GDR's high technology program in the electronics sector.

Start of semiconductor production in 1989

history

The first general director Heinz Wedler headed the combine until November 1989, after the fall of the Berlin Wall . The greatest efforts of the combine management were constantly aimed at becoming independent of component deliveries from abroad, especially under the drastic embargo , and to force coverage of internal requirements. At the same time, the technological backlog, which experts estimated to be around three to eight years behind world standards, should be reduced. In the application of electronics in finished products, the lag was up to 15 years.

Members of a specialist group of the New Forum visit the production facilities in Erfurt (1989)

Between November 1989, the previous Deputy General Director Rainer Jüngel was given management responsibility, and he managed the combine until it was converted into a corporation. 17 of the former operations were subordinated to the AG as GmbH . However, these did not work economically and after some back and forth the Treuhandanstalt decided to dissolve PTC-electronic AG. The entire former combine disintegrated and a few companies were privatized. To liquidate the remaining structures, the Treuhand appointed Rainer Jüngel as the person responsible for the settlement. This process was completed in 2004.

The main plant of the combine became ERMIC GmbH in 1990 , the rest of the combine was transferred to a trust holding company ( PTC-electronic-AG ). This should implement the privatization or liquidation of the individual combine operations. Some successful company spin-offs from this period still exist today (as of 2012). So in 1992 the Thesys Gesellschaft für Mikroelektronik mbH was founded with around 500 employees, which mainly concentrated on the production of ASICs . In the same year, the X-FAB Gesellschaft zur Manufacturing von Wafern mbH was formed as a subsidiary of Melexis NV , which, with around 150 employees, specialized in the production of various CMOS- based integrated circuits . In 1999, the Belgian holding company ELEX NV , to which the Melexis Group and thus X-FAB also belonged, took over Thesys and merged both companies under the new name X-FAB Semiconductor Foundries GmbH . Other successful spin-offs in the field of display technology / optoelectronics, which until 1990 had been dominated by the television electronics plant in Berlin-Oberschöneweide , are also noteworthy .

meaning

Sculpture hand with chip by Eberhard Reppold in front of the entrance to the Funkwerk , the parent company of the Combine Microelectronics Erfurt

From research to the production of active electronic components and their application in products

The focus of the Microelectronics Combine in Erfurt was primarily on semiconductor production within the technology program . As part of the RGW , the combine was thus also a leader in the development / production of microprocessors , single-chip microcomputers and complex memory circuits. Before its dissolution, the combine had 60,000 employees.

Three modern chip factories ( geodata ) were built at the Erfurt Süd-Ost (ESO) location for industrial semiconductor production :

  • ESO I : Start of construction 1981, completion 1984
  • ESO II : Completion 1988
  • The commissioning of ESO III fell in 1989/1990 during the transition period of the GDR

The ESO III plant was intended for the mass production of circuits with structure widths of 1–1.2 µm: technology level 5 (VLSI), 32-bit processor ( U80701 ), 1 Mbit to 4 Mbit DRAM ( megabitch chips ). The wafer production of ESO III began in 1990 "under the trust " and thus during the beginning of the dissolution of the combine.

The western CoCom technology boycott had cut off the Comecon member countries from the market for western high technology and thus forced them to develop all modern technologies completely within their own national economies. Although the GDR was able to bypass the embargo in some cases by engaging middlemen and the microelectronics sector was given above-average financial, personnel and material resources from the end of the 1970s, the GDR economy with the Microelectronics Erfurt Combine did not ultimately succeed in the development deficit compared to the to catch up with the world's leading semiconductor manufacturers with an average of one to two component generations.

The Weimar sculptor Eberhard Reppold (1924–2013) created a metal sculpture to underline the importance of chip development . This received the title Hand mit Chip and was placed in front of the entrance to the main factory in Erfurt.

Developments (selection)

The developers at the parent company in Erfurt had developed the GDR's first microprocessor ( U808 ) in 1977 , which corresponded to the Intel 8008 . The factory produced most of the CPUs in the GDR. The 8-bit CPU U880 (unlicensed Zilog-Z80 replica, for example in the PC 1715 or in the small computers KC 85 / 2-4 ), which is very common in the GDR, was manufactured in Erfurt from 1980.

Manufacturers in the USA and other western industrialized nations were largely aware that the socialist countries with technological standards were engaged in industrial espionage. How else could it be explained that a Russian text was hidden inside a microprocessor chip with the question of when the theft would stop.

From 1984 a replica of the Zilog Z8000 was produced under the name MME U8000 . This 16-bit CPU was used, for example, in the P8000 from VEB Elektro-Apparate-Werke Berlin-Treptow . In contrast, in the 16-bit computers from Robotron, A 7150 and EC 1834 , Soviet CPUs К1810ВМ86 ( Intel 8086 ) were used.

In 1986 the development of the Intel-80286 began as U80601 , which went into production in 1989 and was to be used in the EC 1835 .

The presented and in August 1989 as a functional model intended for mass production in Erfurt 32-bit CPU U80701 (for MicroVAX -II replica RVS K 1820 ) was not more after the end of the GDR into production in latest work ESO III transferred .

  • LC80 learning computer

  • Small computer KC 85 / 2-4 - manufactured in the VEB microelectronics "Wilhelm Pieck" Mühlhausen as a consumer good

  • Specifically 100, pocket calculator

General Directors

  • Heinz Wedler 1978–11 / 1989
  • Gerhard Rainer Jüngel 12 / 1989-10 / 1990 until dissolution

List of combine companies

Combine address: 5010 Erfurt, Juri-Gagarin-Ring 154 ( geodata )

  • VEB Microelectronics "Karl-Marx" Erfurt (Rudolfstrasse 47), parent plant (MME), formerly Funkwerk Erfurt (FWE)
developed and manufactured unipolar circuits and computers such as the BSP-12
developed and produced bipolar and unipolar circuits as well as the BSS 01, the only game console in the GDR
  • VEB Microelectronics "Anna Seghers" Neuhaus am Rennweg (Thomas-Mann-Straße 2), formerly tube factory Neuhaus am Rennweg (RWN)
developed and produced transistors
Import of special components, applications, information control center; Component strategy
developed and produced circuits based on GateArray and standard cell technology as well as special technological equipment
X-ray tube manufacturer
  • VEB Microelectronics "Karl Liebknecht" Stahnsdorf (Ruhlsdorfer Weg)
developed and produced power electronics
  • VEB Microelectronics “Robert Harnau” Großräschen (Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 1), formerly the rectifier plant Großräschen
developed and produced diodes
developed and produced television picture tubes, transmitter tubes, optoelectronic components
produced pocket calculators , including the SR1 school calculator and the KC 85 / 2-4 small computers , as well as semiconductor diodes and reed contacts .
these formed the "watch department"
Manufacturer of packages for transistors, diodes and circuits
Manufacturer of production systems for electronic components
1986 incorporated into the Carl Zeiss Jena combine .
  • VEB high vacuum Dresden
this company specialized in coating and vapor deposition systems
1986 incorporated into the Carl Zeiss Jena combine .
Manufacturer of single crystals for microelectronics

literature

  • Peter Salomon: The history of the microelectronic semiconductor industry in the GDR . Funk-Verlag Hein, Dessau 2003, ISBN 3-936124-31-0 .
  • Friedrich Naumann, Gabriele Schade (ed.): Computer science in the GDR - a balance . Society for Computer Science, Bonn 2006, ISBN 978-3-88579-420-2 .
  • Reinhardt Balzk, Jürgen Leibiger (ed.): Industrial history of the city of Dresden 1945–1990: Contributions to the 800th city anniversary . GNN-Verlag, Schkeuditz 2007, ISBN 978-3-89819-257-6 .

Web links

Commons : Kombinat Mikroelektronik  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Time travel: Erfurt, Kombinat Mikroelektronik Erfurt , short video (1:30 min.) On www.mdr.de.
  2. ↑ Spiegel: End of the Illusion [...]
  3. ↑ a b tell combine directors. In the narrative salon , September 12, 2013; accessed on June 3, 2018.
  4. ↑ When will you finally stop stealing? at www.deutsches-museum.de. Retrieved June 2, 2018.
  5. ↑ Frank Meinecke: 16-bit microprocessor U 8000 . In: VEB Verlag Technik Berlin (ed.): Radio television electronics . 34, No. 11, 1985, ISSN  0033-7900 , pp. 687-691.

Coordinates: 50 ° 58 ′ 45.8 ″  N , 11 ° 2 ′ 12.1 ″  E