Gene Myron Amdahl
The competitive chip market owes its start to Dr. Gene Amdahl, founder of the first successful IBM-compatible CPU manufacturer, Amdahl Corp. It developed the world's first large-scale-integration (LSI) chips—high-performance, air-cooled units that replaced the water-cooled CPUs. Ten years later, Amdahl tried to produce fault-tolerant wafer-scale chips and a high-performance CPU in another company, Trilogy Systems, but cost become an issue. Subsequently, the pioneer in mainframe computer architectures founded Andor International to design, manufacture, and market unique IBM-compatible products that would improve the efficiency, performance, access, capacity, and protection of programs and data. Another Amdahl business, Commercial Data Services, puts the power and functionality of traditional mainframes into PCs. Amdahl is also known for Amdahl's Law used in parallel programming. Amdahl started his career at IBM, where he originated the pioneering concept of compatibility between computer systems. There he also worked on simulation studies and machine designs for character recognition, and he was the initial planner for the IBM 709 and 7030.
Martin Cooper
Considered the pioneer in the wireless communications industry, Martin Cooper conceived the first portable cellular phone in 1973 and led the 10-year process of bringing it to market at Motorola. Cooper built and managed Motorola's paging and cellular business, and served as corporate director of research and development. Products that he introduced during his tenure there amassed a cumulative sales volume of more than $80 billion. Afterward, Cooper co-founded Cellular Business Systems, which dominated the cellular billing industry before he sold it to Cincinnati Bell. He has been granted eight patents in the communications field and has been widely published on communications technology and on management of research and development. Under Cooper's leadership and focus on the wireless Internet, ArrayComm (founded in 1992) has 250 patents issued or pending for the iBurst mobile broadband wireless Internet access system. It combines the freedom of mobility with transmission speeds that are similar to a home broadband DSL line at wired connection prices.
Lewis Counts
Team captain and visionary best describe Lew Counts' role in revolutionizing mixed-signal design by introducing the complementary bipolar process, a practical, high-performance, high-speed process technology. The complementary bipolar process increases the bandwidth for higher data rates while lowering power consumption. Working with colleagues like Barrie Gilbert, Jody Lapham, and Paul Brokaw at Analog Devices, Counts challenged the concept that the linear IC production process was carved in stone tablets. He recognized the need to bring higher levels of complexity to chip design and accomplished it through techniques such as laser wafer trimming in order to create complex products that integrate multiple circuits. For 30 years, he's designed and managed development of analog-signal-processing circuits, including op amps and rms-to-dc converters. In fact, as a fellow and vice president of linear products at Analog Devices, Counts had a vital role in developing the first root-mean-square converters. He's considered one among the pioneers to design "complete performance" into single chips.
Lee De Forest
Ranked as one of the most important innovations in electronics in the first half of the 20th century, Lee De Forest's valve, also called triode, audion, or three-electrode vacuum tube, amplified telegraph and radio signals. It ultimately became a cornerstone in the advancement of radio. He also found a way to add sound directly to movie film utilizing the audion. But the movie industry initially rebuffed his method, only to accept later on. On another front, deForest attempted to broadcast live the N. Y. Metropolitan Opera in his belief that radio and then TV could raise America's cultural awareness. He also pioneered news broadcasting and, proving that some things don't change, incorrectly announced the winner of the 1916 presidential race. His autobiography is called Father of Radio, a title that a number of colleagues feel is warranted.
Philo T. Farnsworth
Today's all-electronic TV sets originated from teenaged Philo Farnsworth's fascination with "seeing pictures through the air" and the idea of the invisible electron. While plowing a potato field at age 14 in Rigby, Idaho, the method for his television system first became clear to him. At age 21, during his stint as a street cleaner, he was finally able to construct his "dream" thanks to recognition by his first financial backers, George Everson and Leslie Gorrell. Farnsworth received patents for television scanning, focusing, synchronizing, contrast, control, and power systems. During WWII, his company produced war materials and supplied electronic components to the federal government. After the war ended, fortunes changed because he was unable to keep pace with more aggressive electronics firms. Farnsworth's company was sold to ITT, where Farnsworth then worked on space-age contracts awarded by the Air Force and other government agencies. Here he invented components of the Defense Early Warning Signal, the PPI Projector (which allowed safe control of air traffic from the ground), an infrared telescope, submarine detection devices, radar calibration equipment, and other inventions. For a time, ITT also funded his new controlled-fusion ideas, but eventually costs lead them to terminate fusion research. He attempted to continue the research at Brigham Young University, but finances overwhelmed the project. Farnsworth, who also invented the first electron microscope and the first infant incubator, held 300 U.S. and foreign patents. He was also involved in the development of radar and peace-time uses of atomic energy.
Bill Gates
Bill Gates' drive to put a computer on every office desktop and home helped change the way computer software was written, ultimately making him the richest man in the world. Programming at age 13, he developed a version of BASIC for the MITS Altair, considered the first microcomputer, before he dropped out of Harvard in 1975. With Paul Allen, he then created Microsoft, now the world's largest software company. Their trick was tweaking a computer operating system called Q-DOS, which Microsoft bought from Seattle Computer Products. Although it was clunky, everyone needed an operating system to run computers. Then in May 1990, Microsoft Windows 3.0 with graphical interfaces and drop-down windows appeared. Other areas dominated by Microsoft include software applications with its Excel for spreadsheets, Word for word processing, and Access for databases. Gates wrote two books, Business @ the Speed of Thought and The Road Ahead, with proceeds going to education-based non-profit organizations. Also, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has donated more than $24 billion to support philanthropic programs.
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