|
|
Silicon Valley Engineering |
|
|
|
Ernest S. Kuh is a world-renowned pioneer in basic and applied research in electrical and electronic circuits and systems, computer-aided design of very large scale integrated circuits(VLSI), and system theory. For over half a century, he has made fundamental contributions to establishing outstanding engineering programs, both in teaching and research, at UC Berkeley as professor (1956-1992), department chair (1963-1968), and dean of engineering (1968-1980).
As a founding faculty member of the systems group of electrical engineering at UC Berkeley, he has laid the foundation of ECAD programs and sparked many initiatives that have produced programs like SPICE, the origin of computer simulation program essential to the development of integrated circuits and systems, BBL (building block layout) for physical design of highly complex integrated circuits with automated placement of circuits blocks and routing of interconnects, the principles of which have been the core of so many commercial tools developed at many ECAD companies in the Silicon Valley such as Synopsys, Cadence, Mentor Graphics and others worldwide. Without these tools, today’s VLSI chips would not exist. Many engineering principles practiced in ECAD tools were extracted from his classical books.
As a role model educational leader, he was instrumental in developing visionary programs in a broad array of engineering disciplines at Berkeley. He has also promoted collaborations internationally by attracting and hosting distinguished scholars from Japan, Taiwan, China, Hungary, Germany, Poland, and many other countries. His public service to the US and other countries as advisor, lecturer, and external examiner is truly exemplary.
Stanley T. Myers is the President & CEO of Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI®). Headquartered in San Jose, California, SEMI is a global industry association serving more than 2,000 companies that provide the equipment, materials and services to manufacture semiconductors, displays, nano-scaled structures, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and related technologies. SEMI maintains offices in Austin, Beijing, Brussels, Moscow, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Taiwan, Tokyo and Washington, D.C.
Myers presides over the association’s international SEMICON trade expositions, trade missions, market statistics program, international standards programs, economic conferences and government relations program.
Prior to his appointment as SEMI president in 1996, Myers worked for 17 years at Siltec Silicon, a manufacturer of silicon wafers, based in Salem, Oregon. He served as president and CEO since 1985, and in 1986 he completed negotiations for the acquisition of Siltec by Mitsubishi Materials Corporation. In July 1996, Siltec officially changed its name to Mitsubishi Silicon America Corporation. Prior to Siltec, Myers worked for Monsanto Corporation for 18 years.
Myers continues to serve on the SEMI board of directors, a post to which he was elected in 1988. He sits on the boards of Ecosol, SKW Corporation, and Chairman of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Advisory Board to MATEC (Maricopa Advanced Technology Education Center). Myers also is a member of the Engineering Advisory Board to the School of Engineering, San Jose State University.
Myers earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from the University of Kansas.
Jerry Sanders was a salesman at Fairchild Semiconductor in the 1960s, eventually rising to Group Director of Marketing Worldwide. Jerry was known for his style and flair. He later co-founded Advanced Micro Devices and took his trademark style into his position as its CEO.
He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on a competitively won academic scholarship from the George Pullman Education Foundation, graduating with his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1958, and then went to work for the Douglas Aircraft Company. One year later, he moved to Motorola, then to Fairchild Semiconductor. In 1969, following clashes with a new more conservative management, Sanders left Fairchild and led a group of current and former Fairchild colleagues to start a new company, AMD, as chairman, president and CEO.
Sanders gave the company a strong sales and marketing orientation, so that it was successful even though it often lagged its competitor’s in technology and manufacturing. He shared the success of the company with the employees, usually coincident with sales-oriented growth targets.
In 1976, he was responsible for a licensing deal with Intel that made AMD a second source for the Intel x86 microprocessor family a deal that eventually made the company the only real competitor to Intel.
Sanders created Advanced Micro Devices; his personality was the company’s personality — colorful, brash, perhaps a little too “Hollywood” for some. Sanders also co founded several prominent industry groups including the Semiconductor Industry Association, the Santa Clara Manufacturing Group, the Semiconductor Research Corporation, SEMATECH, and the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation. He is widely regarded as one of the architects of Silicon Valley and its unique culture.