Texas Instruments made modern communication and computer technology possible through the advances developed by their engineers. In their 1955 building located in a then rural area along central expressway, their developers and staff worked on silicon transistors, integrated circuits, pocket calculators and semiconductor microprocessors.

The corporation originated as Geophysical Service, Inc., founded by two physicists, John Clarence Karcher and Eugene B. McDermott. The technology they developed for oil exploration was used for submarine detection during the war. The company changed its name to Texas Instruments in 1951, and in 1954 it produced the first portable transistor radio. In 1958 engineer Jack Kilby invented the integrated circuit, for which he received the Nobel Prize.