IBM is donating some of the most sophisticated semiconductor manufacturing equipment in the world, including two ion implanters, to four California universities doing semiconductor research: the kit cost IBM $3m when it was installed at its manufacturing plant in San Jose, and is now going to the California Polytechnic State University, San Jose State University, the University of California at Davis and University of California at Los Angeles; there are 112 pieces of equipment all told, and IBM used the ion implanters at San Jose to bombard silicon with dopants; IBM says that Davis is so excited about the IBM donation that it built a $150,000, 2,500 square foot building to house the implanter; IBM used the equipment to prototype transistors and other semiconductor devices, and once the production technique was perfected, mass manufacturing transferred to East Fishkill, New York, and as it no longer had a use for the equipment in San Jose, it decided to give it away; in 1986 IBM donated over $100m of cash, equipment and salaries of loaned executives to educational institutions around the world.
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