This decision would eventually lead to both the rise and fall of IBM. Throughout the 60's and 70's IBM would dominate the market with their faster bipolar transistors serving as the base for their digital products. It wasn't until the 80's in which Intel finally garnered enough ground in the market to become a compelling opponent to IBM. Feeling the pressure from Intel, IBM switched to manufacturing both MOS and bipolar transistors, however, it was too late. Intel's already prevalent and existent advancements in MOS transistor technology would lead to IBM's failure and inability to compete in the market it had practically monopolized just a decade earlier. This led to the IBM ordeal of the early 90's in which thousands of IBM employees were laid off as a result of IBM closing its bipolar transistor facility. A day that marked the beginning of a new age in semiconductor manufacturing, the asserted dominance of Intel over IBM and as a result the dominance of the MOS transistor over the bipolar transistors. This day however is also marked in infamy in local history because it was especially crushing to both the locals of Westchester and more specifically the citizens of Armonk. Had IBM remained prevalent we might have seen a silicon valley of some sorts nestled right here in our backyard in Westchester. .
The structure of an MOS transistor is due to the basic property of Silicon's valence shell. With only 4 valence electrons silicon creates tetrahedral crystals. These structures are relatively stable considering that a large amount of energy is required to move an electron from silicon's covalent bonds. A method known as doping is used to increase the amount of mobile electrons within a transistor. N-type or negative-type doping is when an atom with 5 valence electrons is injected in place of one with 4. Most commonly phosphorus is injected in place of silicon in N-type doping. The other type of doping is P-type or positive type doping.