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 the...