Editing Microsystems International (section)

==History==
[[File:Micro MF1103R 1a.jpg|thumb|MIL MF1103R 1 kb PMOS DRAM, second source of the [[Intel 1103]].]]
Electronic manufacturers were at that time forced to create custom integrated circuits due to the lack of industry standard ICs. MIL was an attempt to create a merchant company that could supply such standard devices as well as custom devices for Northern Electric products. Northern Electric entered the field partly at the urging of the Canadian federal government even though it had strong doubts of the viability of the company.<ref name="Thomas1983"/>
[[File:MIL 74L72 plus 54L20 TTL and ML741 plus ML301 opamps.jpg|thumb|MIL standard bipolar digital TTL logic (ML54L20, ML74L72) and linear opamp (ML301, ML741) components]]
[[File:MIL MF1702 MD6150 MF2102 and 1402 memories.jpg|thumb|MIL MF1702 2kb EPROM, MD6150 256b bipolar SRAM, MF1402 1kb dynamic shift register, and MF2102 1kb NMOS SRAM]]
MIL manufactured both [[Bipolar junction transistor|bipolar]] and [[MOSFET|MOS]] semiconductor devices, including standard [[TTL (electronics)|TTL]] digital logic components and linear products such as [[operational amplifier]]s, as well as a variety of memory components. In 1971, MIL became a [[second source]] for the [[Intel 1103]] [[dynamic random-access memory|DRAM]] IC.<ref name="Tedlow2006" /> The licensing fee paid by MIL to Intel meant that Intel could show a profit in 1971 for the first time in its history.<ref name="Tedlow2006" />

MIL was never able to show a profit and losses were exacerbated by the semiconductor market downturn in 1974. It was purchased and folded into Nortel's research arm [[Bell-Northern Research]] and later merged into [[Nortel]].<ref name="Thomas1983"/> MIL was purchased and folded into Nortel's research arm [[Bell-Northern Research]] in 1974.<ref>{{cite book | editor-last=Novakowski | editor-first=Nick | editor2=Rémy Tremblay | date=2007 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g3EC4nqKcmIC | title=Perspectives on Ottawa's High-tech Sector | publisher=P.I.E.–Peter Lang | page=30 | isbn=9789052013701}}</ref> The MIL fabrication facility continued to operate as the largest semiconductor fab in Canada until Nortel's bankruptcy in 2009.