SGS was merged with Ates by the
Italian government. Control of SGS was removed from Olivetti and the whole new
corporation SGS-Ates was controlled by STET (Societą Finanziara Telefonica),
which already controlled Ates.
The merged SGS-Ates company focused
on linear IC's for much of the 70's. In 1979 SGS-Ates licensed the Z80 from
Zilog and produced a complete family of pin-compatible Z80 chips. In 1982, SGS
developed a line of Zilog Z8000 compatible chips.
In the 1981, SGS-Ates bought the
troubled Mostek from United Technologies. This added addition market share of
Z80 chips and added Mostek's Fairchild F8 licenses.
SGS never developed any unique
designs and as competitive commodity pressures increased, SGS merged with the
French company Thomson.
