@ dhenry I think you have some details incorrect... Again. The first switchers I remember were made WELL before integrated designs for chips were out of the development stages., Remember PWM? it was in discrete form (3 or 4 IC's) and the real cheap ones used a flyback oscillator... and a linear regulator.
I remember the first one I saw, very clearly... It was plugged in and promptly went up in smoke, along with a $300.00 basic 4 function calculator.
Bob