Robert W. Dutton and his group at Stanford University develop SUPREM (fabrication process simulator) and PISCES (device electrical-behavior simulator), the first tools allowing software prediction of how a silicon chip will behave before it is physically manufactured. These programs digitize physical models of doping and charge transport — including the phenomenon of ionized-impurity scattering — and replace trial-and-error manufacturing of integrated circuits with a predictive discipline. Commercialization comes in 1979 with the founding of Technology Modeling Associates (TMA), co-founded by Dutton, the first company dedicated to selling semiconductor process simulation software; TMA was later acquired by Avant!, which was in turn acquired by Synopsys.