Silicon giants honored at 50th anniversary of the semiconductor

May 13, 2009
By Mike Santarini

In my many years covering electronics, I've attended some really cool events and I've met an endless list of fascinating and smart people who have not only changed this little Valley (where I've lived my entire life, thus far), but the world. I count myself very lucky to have the privilege of covering these fascinating people and their inventions for many years.

Recently (May 2) I attended an event that certainly ranks near the top of cool events I've ever attended: the National Inventors Hall of Fame ceremony at the Computer History Museum (Mountain View, Calif.) where Xilinx's founder Ross Freeman and 14 other semiconductor luminaries were inducted into the Hall of Fame.

There were inventors everywhere—huge inventors—pretty much the who's who of the semiconductor industry inventors and their families. Some were there in person to accept their awards, while others, like Freeman, who have passed on, had relatives or friends at the ceremony to accept their awards and honor their accomplishments and contributions to society.

Freeman, was honored for his invention of the FPGA, patent 4,870,302, titled "Configurable electrical circuit having configurable logic elements and configurable interconnects."

Ross Freeman's mother Ethel and his brother Fred Freeman proudly display Ross's Hall of fame award.(photo courtesy of Susan Carter)

His brother, Fred, accepted the award on behalf of the family and his colleagues at Xilinx. Ross's mother Ethel, sisters Joanie and Janet and their respective families, along with Fred's children, attended the ceremony. Also present to honor Ross's legacy were Xilinx President and CEO Moshe Gavrielov, CTO Ivo Bolsens, Co-founder Jim Barnett and Fellow and employee No. 8 Bill Carter. All are very proud of Ross' accomplishments and thankful for the Hall's recognition. "It was great to see Ross get the recognition he truly deserves," said Carter.

This was the first time the award ceremony was not held at the home of the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio. The organizers decided to hold the ceremony in Silicon Valley to honor the 50th Anniversary of the semiconductor. Other recipients of the award at this year's ceremony included:

• Bell Labs' Gordon Teal —silicon transistor, 2,703,269
• Fairchild's Jean Hoerni—planar process, 3,025, 589
• Intel's Gordon Moore—semiconductor production, 3,108,359
• Bell Labs' Martin M. (John) Atalla and Dawon Kahng—MOS transistor, patents 3,206,670 (Semiconductor Devices Having Dielectric Coatings) and 3,102,230 (Electric Field Controlled Semiconductor Device)
• Fairchild's Frank Wanlass—CMOS 3,356,858)
• Linear Tech co-founder Robert Widlar—analog monolithic integrated circuit, 3,364,434
• RCA Labs George Heilmeier —Electro-Optic Liquid Crystal Device, 3,499,112
• Sprague Electric's Ken Manchester and John Macdougall— Ion Implantation, 3,896,966
• Bell Labs' Alfred Y. Cho—molecular beam epitaxy, 3,830,654
• Cal Tech's Carver Mead—VLSI methodology for chip design 3,959,774
• Intel's Dov Frohman-Bentchkowsky—EPROM, 3,744,036
• TI's Larry Hornbeck—Digital micromirror device (DMD) 5,061,049

That wasn't the end of the list, as several past recipients (semiconductor-related and otherwise) were also in attendance. Without name dropping, I saw and/or met, the inventors of the microprocessor, the inventor the first kidney dialysis machine and artificial heart, and Woz (okay, I name dropped, he's a local boy made good), among a dozen or so other world-changing inventors.

As someone who covered EDA for many years, it was fantastic to see Carver Mead receive honors for inventing the VLSI methodology. Mead's dedicated his entire life to education and in addition to creating his own inventions helped train and inspire a few generations of entrepreneurs and inventors to create the next generation of inventions to hopefully change the world for the better.

In his very brief acceptance speech, Mead told the audience that we've all played a part in perhaps the greatest evolutionary period of the human race.

"As we think about that we have to realize that what we have now is not the end of an era but the beginning," said Mead. "In order to have the kind of innovation that we've been privileged to engage in, for future generations we have to put as much energy into evolving our educational system as we do in evolving technology."

On a somewhat related note, the National Inventors Hall of Fame presented former Intel CEO Andy Grove with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Grove, who has been a champion of education as well as innovation, used the opportunity to deliver a brief speech calling for the reform of the U.S. patent office.

Grove said that when he came to Silicon Valley 50 years ago as a grad student the environment was favorable to science, engineering and technology.

"It was rich with talent, money, orchards and sunshine," said Grove. "There was also an approach to intellectual property that allowed for the spreading of knowledge."

Grove said that Thomas Jefferson, whom many consider the father of the patent system, claimed that "the true value of an invention is its usefulness to the public."

"He would have been very pleased with the IP climate at that time," said Grove, recalling that AT&T licensed its patent of the transistor, perhaps the most important innovation in the industry, to all comers for only $25,000.

"This allowed the transistor industry to develop and grow and become a flourishing manufacturing industry here in the United States," said Grove. He also noted that while Fairchild and TI had legal wranglings over whether Bob Noyce (then at Fairchild) or TI's Jack Kilby had the first patent on the integrated circuit, quickly cross licensing allowed the industry to progress.

"The industry flourished and it changed the lives of millions, arguably billions of people in the world. It is an outstanding demonstration that the benefits of innovation depend on both the invention and the ability to put the invention into practice," said Grove.

However, Grove warned attendees of an increasingly ominous patent environment in the U.S. in which various "entities" create, sell, buy, and ultimately speculate on patents sans the intent of ever producing products based on those patents. "Instead, these entities are content to wait for companies to, in the natural course of progress, infringe on patents they own and thus be forced to pay exorbitant royalties or legal penalties." Grove warned that this patent speculation is starting to stifle innovation and slowing down the proliferation of new products that could better society as a whole.

"As we celebrate the accomplishments of the last 50 years, I can't help but wonder if the next 50 years will be equally productive," Grove said. "I'm dubious." Grove suggested that the U.S. Patent office establish reforms that would require holders of patents to produce product based on their patents or else lose them. "It may be time to use Jefferson's principle as a test and ask if we need it," said Grove. "If not, like so many other systems in our society, we must rebuild this one as well so that it does what it is supposed to do: help the public; help all of us."

====================

출처: http://www.pldesignline.com/guest_blogs/217400619;jsessionid=FXSQAEEZI201WQSNDLPSKH0CJUNN2JVN