Texas Instruments Records

[Digital Micromirror Device
on a Carrier], 1991

[The world's first handheld
calculator, ''Cal-Tech'',
from TI], ca. 1967

[First TI stock certificate], 1953

[TI Semiconductor Building,
exterior view], 1958

[F-117 stealth fighter],
ca. 1980s-1990s

[Dr. Larry Hornbeck with TI's
1998 Emmy Award], ca. 1998

[GSI Headquarters], 1967

[TI DSP chips and a digital
cell phone], ca. 1990

About the Collection

Holding library: DeGolyer Library

Overview

The Texas Instruments Records digital collection contains hundreds of photographic images and documents from the Texas Instruments (TI) records archive held by SMU’s DeGolyer Library and/or TI headquarters. Each item includes information about its relationship to Texas Instruments’ corporate and technological history.

Collection Materials

The Texas Instruments Records physical collection consists of over 1500 cubic feet of corporate records, photographs, and artifacts. The archive includes records of TI's predecessor company, Geophysical Service Incorporated (GSI), papers of key executives, documents from key projects, early inventions, prototype products, and samples of consumer and business products. The collection documents the company's extraordinary history, breadth of technological expertise, and role in the technological revolution. It is an especially rich source for students of business history, technology, and engineering.

The DeGolyer Library also holds the Jack Kilby Papers, Jack Kilby Photographs, and J. Erik Jonsson Papers.

About TI

Organized in 1930 as Geophysical Service, the company was formed to provide oil exploration services using the reflection seismograph. This technology used sound waves to look deep into the earth to search for oil deposits. By decade's end, the company's seismic crews were engaged by the world's largest oil companies in virtually every major oil field. 

Through reorganization, the oil exploration unit became a subsidiary named Geophysical Service Inc. (GSI). In 1941, the GSI subsidiary was sold to Eugene McDermott (cofounder of Geophysical Service) and key employees J. Erik Jonsson, Cecil H. Green, and H. Bates Peacock. In 1951, the company name was changed to Texas Instruments Incorporated, and in 1953, TI obtained its listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

The history of Texas Instruments is a history of meeting challenges: where the company has seen a customer need or an application where the power of technology could provide a positive solution, innovative technologies have been applied. For more than seven decades, Texas Instruments has been pioneering the technologies, systems, and products that are shaping our world.

Early developments include submarine-detection equipment (1941), the first commercial production of silicon transistors (1954), side-looking radar (1955), the integrated circuit (IC) (1958), thermal printing (1965), the electronic hand-held calculator (1967), thermocompression wire-bonding for IC assembly (1969), laser-guidance systems for missiles (1969), and the computer-on-a-chip (1971).

More recent developments include three-dimensional (3D) seismic data processing technology (1975), speech synthesis chips (1978), digital signal processors (1982), quantum-effect ICs that operate at room temperature (1993), and Digital Light Processing™ (DLP™) (1995).

The company is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, with sales or manufacturing operations in more than 25 countries worldwide. Current businesses include semiconductors and technology. More information about TI is available on TI web site in the History of Innovation section.

Holdings and Highlights

The digital collection contains a sampling of major Record Groups within the physical collection. The items in the online collection cover the ca. 1930-2005 date range. For more information on how the physical collection is arranged, please view the finding aid.

RG-01 Executive Office Chairman, President, Secretary, Legal
RG-02 Corporate Finance, Control
RG-03 Corporate Personnel/Human Resources
RG-04 Strategic Development, Corporate Communications, Corporate Marketing, Corporate Research Development & Engineering, Strategic Synthesis (Planning), Licensing
RG-05 Corporate Services, People and Asset Effectiveness, Facilities, Material
RG-06 Semiconductor Group
RG-07 Data Systems Group
RG-08 Defense Systems and Electronics Group (Equipment Group)
RG-09 Materials and Controls Group
RG-10 Geophysical Services Inc.
RG-11 Industrial Systems Division
RG-12 Information Systems and Services
RG-13 Geophysical Systems Division
RG-14 Consumer Products Division
RG-15 TI Marketing Division
RG-16 Latin American Division
RG-17 TI International Systems Division
RG-18 International Records
RG-19 Audio Visual
RG-20 Publications