The story
Founded by NASDAQ OMX Phlx on Dec 1, 1993.1
The index was set to an initial value of 200 on December 1, 1993 and was split two-for-one on July 24, 1995; options commenced trading on September 7, 1994.
From Wikipedia’s article on PHLX Semiconductor Sector, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3