SGS (Società Generale Semiconduttori, English: General Semiconductor Company) was an Italian manufacturer of semiconductor devices, most notably diodes, transistors and DIP ICs.

In 1957, Mario Tchou, an engineer from Olivetti, convinced Adriano Olivetti to found an Italian electronic manufacturing company for production of solid-state electronic devices. Olivetti sent his son Roberto Olivetti and Mario Tchou to negotiate with Virgilio Floriani, president of Telettra, to establish a joint venture. Within the same year, Olivetti and Telettra founded Società Generale Semiconduttori (SGS).^[2] One of the reasons for SGS's foundation was the need of parts (diodes and transistors in particular) for Elea, a mainframe that was being developed by Olivetti. The headquarters of the company was located in Agrate Brianza.^[3]

In 1960, Fairchild Semiconductor acquired one third of the company and a joint venture called SGS-Fairchild was formed. That gave SGS access to Fairchild's newly invented planar manufacturing technology.^[4] The partnership ended in 1968 and Fairchild sold its SGS stocks to IRI-STET, predecessor of TIM.

In December 1971, SGS merged with an Italian semiconductor company named ATES and forms SGS-ATES. On 23 April 1985, the company changes its name to SGS Microelettronica. 2 years later, SGS Microelettronica merged with Thomson Semiconductors to form SGS-Thomson, which later became STMicroelectronics in 1998.^[3]

• Leonardo
• Zilog
• Mostek
• Thomson-CSF