high reverse breakdown voltage of the PNP transistors allowed the LM101 to withstand a differential input voltage of ±30 V. Its frequency compensation was simpler, more robust and more stable than that of μA709. It was followed by LM101A, a functionally identical IC that pioneered the use of a field-effect transistor to control internal current sources. Widlar's solution minimized die area and current drain, and enabled operation over a wide range of power supply voltages. Later he devised another new device, the super-beta transistor. It was created in silicon by Talbert and integrated in the LM108 precision operational amplifier, which was released in 1969. These high-gain, very-low-voltage devices were capable of operating at very low input currents within the full military range of operating conditions. The items in the linear circuit product line were user friendly, very useful, and very profitable. In the late 1960s Widlar experimented with the band gap phenomenon and converted his basic current source block into a bandgap voltage reference. "Widlar's Leap" resulted in a robust and stable reference that was crucial for high-current, heat-intensive applications. Its low voltage, typically 1.25V, also allowed more flexibility in discrete and integrated circuit design. Widlar created another industry first by combining a power transistor and a precise voltage reference on the same die. This device, the LM109 voltage regulator, was released in 1969 and at first went unnoticed. In 1971 National Semiconductor released Widlar's LM113, the first dedicated, two-terminal voltage reference IC.{{#tag:ref|National Semiconductor calls LM113 a reference diode, referring to its two-terminal packaging Reference Diode (Datasheet).|group=note}} Widlar and Talbert were instrumental in the takeover of National Semiconductor by former Fairchild Semiconductor managers Charles Sporck, Fred Bialek, Floyd Kvamme, Roger Smullen and Pierre Lamond in February 1967. This new team quickly turned National Semiconductor into a leading producer of electronic circuits, and Fairchild Semiconductor slipped into an irreversible decline. Widlar's popularity in the industry soared: advertised as "the man who designed more than half of the world's linear circuits", he frequently gave lectures to fellow engineers, and on May 23, 1970, spoke to an audience at Madison Square Garden. Regis McKenna, former National Semiconductor executive, said in 1995 that "most of the linear devices that were probably built and marketed for the period of the sixties and seventies were based on Widlar and Talbert's technology. I mean they created, in many ways, this industry... they were the Steve Jobs and