Fable

53 years ago, a Swiss guy who designed one of the most famous chips ever made, founded a semiconductor company. Six years later he sold it to Ferranti. He also introduced the phase-locked loop. He wrote several books about electronics but also one about religion addressing the question: ‘Does God exist?’ Moral: Great minds have catholic interests

Many chip companies derived their names from either abbreviations/derivations of their provenance or from their targeted technology/market. These were the raw materials from which the names of some of the brightest stars in the chip firmament were formulated: Signal Network Electronics Z integrated logic Integrated Electronics Alterable Advanced Technology For Memory And Logic  Ex Intel Corporation International Silicon  Silicon ICs

These sculptures stand on the site of  a celebrated lab: Though some dubbed it  ‘Paranoid Place’. Moral: Genius Has Downsides

There was once a company which had 85% of the worldwide DRAM market. It was bought for $345 million in 1979 and sold for $71 million in 1985. Moral: Circumstances change quickly in the chip industry

94 years ago a company introduced this accessory for the motoring public which became ubiquitous. It brought fame and fortune to the company. Moral: A Great Pleasure Deserves A Great Reward

There was once a  semiconductor CEO whose company came up with some transformative technology breakthroughs. The problem was getting potential customers to buy into the possibilities these breakthroughs offered. He did two things: For one technology breakthrough he worked with a radio company to produce a first-of-a-kind radio one of which was bought by the CEO of IBM who was ...

CEOs are sometimes larger than life individuals whose careers have surprising outcomes. Among these are are ten who shared an unusual executive experience. They are; Jeff Skilling, Bernie Ebbers, Dennis Kozlowski, John Rigas, Sanjay Kumar, Walter Forbes, Joe Nacchio, Richard Scrushy, Sam Waksal, Martin Grass. Moral: If You Can’t Be Good Be Careful

2000 years ago a guy wrote a poem entitled  ‘On The Nature Of Things’ which explained Epicurean physics presenting  the principles of atomism, the nature of the mind and soul, explanations of sensation and thought, the development of the world and its phenomena, the development and use of materials, tools, and weapon, the evolution of  species by natural selection and ...

192 years ago was born the inventor of this engine, which he named after himself and  which had a considerable effect on the transportation industry:   The inventor cut short his formal education and started his working life as a grocery salesman before his curiosity was aroused by the properties of  gases. Moral: Curiosity is a powerful spur .  

170 years ago a lady was born who the first woman to receive the Hughes Medal for her own work, the first woman to be elected to the IEE (now IET) and the first woman to be proposed for fellowship of the Royal Society. However, at that time, married women didn’t have a legal existence so she was not allowed ...