The purpose of this presentation is to relate and discuss how VS&T (vacuum science and technology) impacted the semiconductor industry prior to 1976. The major portion of the talk will feature research, development, production, and quality and reliability experience at Texas Instruments. But company interactions with the rest of the SC industry and the military and space agencies also provide noteworthy examples of VS&T's contributions. Initially, military requirements for performance and reliability were the driving force. Device stability and manufacturability (read yield) were key to industry growth as well. All of these it turns out were highly dependent upon equipment, processes, and control of various thin film depositions in device manufacture and vacuum techniques in package assembly. A progression of improved technology and equipment will be described including the change from filament to eb-gun deposition, from oil pumped to high vacuum dry pumped systems, process control and reliability assurance using RGA, scanning electron microscopy, and current-temperature stressing. Both early bipolar and MOS processing will be addressed. The data presented and discussed will show how significant VS&T was to the growth of the SC industry and will consist of both a review of published and unpublished information.