Jack Kilby, inventor of the integrated circuit, dies at 81

Marc

Hunkered Down for the Duration with a Mask on...
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#1
Jack Kilby, inventor of the integrated circuit, one winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics (Robert Noyce died in 1990), died June 20th after a brief battle with cancer.

In 1958 he invented the foundation for a trillion dollar industry as a substitute for going on vacation. In the summer of 1958, Kilby was a newly employed engineer at TI who didn't yet have the right to a summer vacation. He spent the whole summer working on the problem of "tyranny of numbers" and finally came to the conclusion that all that they need is semiconductors. On September 12 he presented his findings to the management of Texas Instruments. He showed them a piece of germanium, pressed a switch, and the attached oscilloscope showed a continuous sine wave, proving that he solved the problem. A patent for a "Solid Circuit made of Germanium", the first integrated circuit, was later filed on February 6, 1959.

From 1978 to 1985, he was Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering at Texas A&M University. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000 for his breakthrough discovery. The J-K flip-flop is named after him, as is The Kilby Center, TI's research center for silicon manufacturing.

In addition to the integrated circuit, Kilby also is noted as the patenting inventor of the portable calculator and the thermal printer used in data terminals.

Kilby passed away June 20, 2005, in Dallas, Texas following a brief battle with cancer. Kilby was 81.
 
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Craig H.

#2
I have to wonder what the reaction was when he made that presentation where first he flipped the switch. Then again, who has the imagination that could have forseen what it would come to mean? The earth should have been shaking...
 
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