When I was younger silicon Fab lines often ended up being tweaked to support a particular product that was making money. So Inmos only managed to get round to manufacturing its Transputer when there was a downturn in the memory chip market, where it was making its money.

The Foundry concept of accomodating a range of customers entailed relaxed design rules (courtesy of Mead & Conway) so that that part of the process could be speeded up, such that in the old days it was accessible to students at University. Xerox Corporation generously provided this international resource, which others emulated.