Suggestion - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: IntegratedValve
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 03, 2014, 06:56:06 pm
content: Who is the Bob Pease, Bob Widlar, or Jim Williams of today?Someone on this forum with equivalent skills and experience?If so I would love to see them shortly interviewed by Dave, maybe following same interview questions on eeweb.com.Thanks.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 03, 2014, 07:10:15 pm
content: Well, Vincent Himpe is pretty good, and has the record for the longest Amp Hour interview, where even Chris and Dave barely got a word in edgewise. Free_Electron on the forum, he really needs another episode to continue, the amp hour one was way too short.

author: IntegratedValve
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 03, 2014, 07:42:22 pm
content: Quote from: SeanB on January 03, 2014, 07:10:15 pmCool, what did he invent? Which episodes?And I just remembered Jeri Ellsworth with her recent invention Cast AR 3D.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 03, 2014, 08:02:42 pm
content: He is a generalist with a very broad knowledge, you can call him a Jack of All Trades, one who can do almost any function in the electronics industry.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 03, 2014, 08:06:26 pm
content: Quote from: IntegratedValve on January 03, 2014, 06:56:06 pmProbably lots of people. The thing is that today's brilliant inventions aren't made by a single person but a team of people.@SeanB: I agree. Free_electron knows a lot, has seen a lot and can tell about in a way it makes sense. Unfortunately for him the latter disqualifies him as a genius

author: c4757p
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 03, 2014, 08:10:02 pm
content: Quote from: nctnico on January 03, 2014, 08:06:26 pmThis ability to explain, of course, is at least a big part of why Pease and Williams are famous. Lots of people have invented things; these two could write about them.Widlar's claim to fame seems to be his rather entertaining eccentricity.

author: IntegratedValve
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 03, 2014, 08:15:53 pm
content: I mean Bob Pease is famous for his Voltage-to-Frequency ConverterWidlar invented the OpAmp ICJim Wiliams power electronics guruEven if today innovations are all teamwork, there's still a unique part or theory to be created by someone unique, unless we are heading communism

author: w2aew
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 03, 2014, 08:29:16 pm
content: I'm afraid that we're unlikely to find the likes of a Jim Williams or Bob Pease again - these guys had the unique ability to break down complex topics and explain them in ways that laymen could understand. They had great intuition about how things work, and how to exploit their properties. Their legacy will live on in the books, publications, application notes, etc. that they produced.Widlar was another character - brilliant and quite eccentric. There are a lot of other analog gurus that are around that helped to shape the analog IC industry - Brokaw, Gilbert, Addis, Erdi, and many more that I'm forgetting. The accomplishments of these wizards is often behind the scenes, since they weren't as widely published as Williams and Pease.Amateur, part-time "educators" like myself can only hope to come close to the likes of these guys!Oh, and I agree - Vincent's AmpHour show was great! About 2.5x longer than my appearance!

author: c4757p
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 03, 2014, 08:35:36 pm
content: Quote from: IntegratedValve on January 03, 2014, 08:15:53 pmOf course. And Camenzind's NE555 was used easily as much as Pease's LM331, but we don't hear of him nearly as much. It's not about what they invented, it's about how they talked about it.Quote from: w2aew on January 03, 2014, 08:29:16 pmI would definitely count you and Vincent among the gifted explainers, even if neither one of you is likely to become as famous as Bob Pease.

author: Jay_Diddy_B
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 03, 2014, 08:40:10 pm
content: Hi Group,Don't forget Robert C. Dobkin.Bob Dobkin co-founder and CTO of Linear Technology.His work includes:LM317LM118LM199 and the improved version LTZ1000LT1083 The first low dropout regulatorJay_Diddy_B

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 03, 2014, 08:57:04 pm
content: I once had the honor to meet Bob Mammano, the father of SG1524 and the whole family of PWM controllers. A very nice person that could also put in simple words very tough concepts.

author: IntegratedValve
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 03, 2014, 09:14:02 pm
content: Dr. Fujio Masuoka

author: SArepairman
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2014, 12:43:32 am
content: how about dds and rf chip guys?whoever made the thing inside of cell phones must be pretty good eh

author: vk6zgo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2014, 01:26:18 am
content: Quote from: IntegratedValve on January 03, 2014, 06:56:06 pmStrangely,in over 40 years in Electronics,I had never heard of any of these guys before I joined this forum!When I first started out,most of the "wizards" we revered were already either dead,retired,or doing something else.Such people as Farnsworth,Zworykin,Armstrong,etc.Bardeen,Brittain,& Schockley were still around,though!

author: IntegratedValve
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2014, 01:28:41 am
content: Quote from: SArepairman on January 04, 2014, 12:43:32 amCould be work of a team...but lets look for who established the theory of RF and microstrips.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2014, 01:31:55 am
content: Quote from: SArepairman on January 04, 2014, 12:43:32 amThere is a man called 'Jim Thompson' hanging around in the newsgroup sci.electronics.design. Appearantly he is one of the early analog designers from the 60's still doing complicated analog IC designs today (according to him he designed parts of popular GPS chips). Sometimes he shows off clever stuff but explaining how it works exactly is not his strong suit.Quote from: IntegratedValve on January 04, 2014, 01:28:41 amProbably long gone. George Boole who invented the Boolean algebra on which every logic circuit (computer) is based did that around 1850. That is already over 150 years ago. Same goes for DSP algoritmes, digital signal processing, etc, etc. All invented long before these had any practical use.

author: kebogen
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2014, 01:39:18 am
content: Quote from: SeanB on January 03, 2014, 08:02:42 pmI really agree with you.

author: IntegratedValve
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2014, 06:22:04 am
content: Listen what he says at 30:09.