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<span id="openzim-page-title" class="mw-page-title-main"><span class="mw-page-title-main">Second source</span></span>
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</style><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Not to be confused with <a href="Secondary_source" title="Secondary source">Secondary source</a>.</div>
<p>In the <a href="Electronics_industry" title="Electronics industry">electronics industry</a>, a <b>second source</b> is a company that is licensed to manufacture and sell components originally designed by another company (the first source).<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>It is common for engineers and purchasers to seek components that are available from multiple sources, to avoid the risk that a problem with one supplier would prevent a product from being manufactured. For simple components such as resistors and transistors, this is not usually an issue, but for complex <a href="Integrated_circuit" title="Integrated circuit">integrated circuits</a>, vendors often react by licensing one or more other companies to manufacture and sell the same parts as second sources. While the details of such licenses are usually confidential, they often involve <a href="Cross-licensing" title="Cross-licensing">cross-licensing</a>, so that each company also obtains the right to manufacture and sell parts designed by the other.
</p><p>In the early TTL device period wafers were smaller so production was limited. More production lead to lower prices and new designs rapidly emerged.
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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Examples">Examples</h2></div>

<p><a href="MOS_Technology" title="MOS Technology">MOS Technology</a> licensed <a href="Rockwell_International" title="Rockwell International">Rockwell</a> and <a href="Synertek" title="Synertek">Synertek</a> to second-source the <a href="MOS_Technology_6502" title="MOS Technology 6502">6502</a> microprocessor and its support components.
</p><p><a href="Intel" title="Intel">Intel</a> licensed <a href="AMD" title="AMD">AMD</a> to second-source Intel microprocessors such as the <a href="Intel_8086" title="Intel 8086">8086</a> and its related support components. This second-source agreement is particularly famous for leading to much <a href="Advanced_Micro_Devices" class="mw-redirect" title="Advanced Micro Devices"> litigation between the two parties</a>. The agreement gave AMD the rights to second-source later Intel parts, but Intel refused to provide the <a href="Mask_set" class="mw-redirect" title="Mask set">masks</a> for the <a href="Intel_80386" class="mw-redirect" title="Intel 80386">386</a> to AMD. AMD <a href="Reverse_engineering" title="Reverse engineering">reverse-engineered</a> the 386, and Intel then claimed that AMD's license to the 386 <a href="Microcode" title="Microcode">microcode</a> only allowed AMD to "use" the microcode but not to sell products incorporating it. The courts eventually decided in favor of AMD.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>When <a href="Digital_Equipment_Corporation" title="Digital Equipment Corporation">Digital Equipment Corporation</a> release <a href="DEC_Alpha" title="DEC Alpha">DEC Alpha</a> in 1992, an industry analyst said that a second source for the CPU was necessary for credibility as an <a href="Open_system_(computing)" title="Open system (computing)">open system</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-wilson19921116_3-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-wilson19921116-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
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<div class="side-box-text plainlist">Wikimedia Commons has media related to <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Microprocessor_second_sources" class="extiw external" title="commons:Category:Microprocessor second sources">Microprocessor second sources</a></span>.</div></div>
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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2></div>
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<li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-1">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">John Zysman, Laura Tyson, <i>American Industry in International Competition: Government Policies And Corporate Strategies</i>, Cornell University Press, 1984 <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1238218222">
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</style><a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a>&nbsp;<bdi>0-8014-9297-1</bdi> page 160 </span>
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<li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Michael J. Lennon, <i>Drafting technology patent license agreements</i>, Aspen Publishers Online, 1999 <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a>&nbsp;<bdi>0-7355-0237-4</bdi>, Appendix 4C <i>The AMD-Intel, AMD-Fujitsu Cross-License and Joint Venture Agreement</i></span>
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<li id="cite_note-wilson19921116-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-wilson19921116_3-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFWilson1992" class="citation magazine cs1">Wilson, Jayne (1992-11-16). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=N1EEAAAAMBAJ&amp;pg=PA33">"DEC debuts its long-awaited 64-bit Alpha systems"</a>. <i>InfoWorld</i>. Vol.&nbsp;14, no.&nbsp;46. p.&nbsp;33<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2025-06-30</span></span>.</cite></span>
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This article is issued from <a class="external text" title="Last edited on 2025-07-01" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/?title=Second_source&amp;oldid=1298343300">Wikipedia</a>. The text is available under <a class="external text" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en">Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0</a> unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.
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