“Microchip pioneer Jack Kilby (http://www.ti.com/kilby), who won the 2000 Nobel Prize for co-inventing the integrated circuits that ushered in the digital age of personal computers, cell phones and the Internet, has died after a brief battle with cancer. He was 81,” The Associated Press reports.
“In 1958, during his first year working with Texas Instruments Inc. in Dallas, Kilby used borrowed equipment to build the first integrated circuit. All the components were fabricated in a single piece of semiconductor material half the size of a paper clip. ‘In my opinion, there are only a handful of people whose works have truly transformed the world and the way we live in it — Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, the Wright Brothers and Jack Kilby,’ TI Chairman Tom Engibous said in a statement Tuesday… [Kilby also] headed teams that built the first military system and the first computer incorporating integrated circuits. He later co-invented the hand-held calculator and the thermal printer used in portable data terminals.”
Full article here.
I still don’t understand how those things work.
It’s rumored that the “borrowed equipment” was borrowed from captured alien craft from the Area 51 incident — or, that the circuit boards already existed on the ship(s). That, and the first laser.
What an interestingly short and (ahem) americano-centric list. Clearly no place for telephones, film, DNA, the Internet, internal combustion engine etc. etc. (etc.)
Still, sorry to see the old boy go; I type my thanks via some of the wonders of his intellectual legacy.
If thats true is Bill Gates an alien and is he hostile. Seeing as he is attempting to bring the planet grinding to a halt.
“Launch the missiles at the Alien ships”
” we cant sir we ve got to switch off and delete C Drive”
I live not two miles from the main TI campus in Dallas, and have several good friends who work there. They were truly in awe of Mr. Kilby whenever he’d speak to a workgroup or sit in on a meeting.
Mr. Engibous is obviously unaware of the achievements of Mr. Guttenberg (book printing – dissemination of knowledge), Mr. Watt (steam engine – start of the industrial age, fast travel), Mr. Otto (combustion engine – a necessary prerequisite for the Wright brother’s work, among others), Mr. Daimler (automobile), and the nameless genius who invented the wheel.
To name Henry Ford instead, is a sick joke. Henry Ford was the 1920s’ version of Michael Dell. He made cars a commodity, using inferior technology.
The first computer, the first phone, many medical milestones, central heating, air conditioning, TV, lots of things we use daily without another thought as to who invented them.
Let’s not forget that babe on the plains of Africa who gave the first blow job eons ago.
Lot’s to be thankful for.
Al, you are choking me up.
I am on a Mac because that Apple computer works to me allmost like a TV set, how it works I have no idea ! Thanks Mr J. Kilby !
Was the first blow-job given to a Mr. Lot then?
(and more tittersome grammarian observation…)
What a bunch of humano centric dimwits. Everyone with the other half a mind working knows that the greatest inventions were invented by creatures OTHER than that poor pathetic species knows as Homo sapiens. Notably:
Closed packet arrangement for liquids (bees).
Ballistic missile (fungi).
Trajectory aiming (plants and fungi).
Prostitution (penguins).
Electricity (Monera).
Radar and sonar (bats, dolphins and whales).
Tools (insects)
Farming (insects)
Society (insects)
Language and song (birds).
Contraception (kangaroos).
Apart from your novel opposable thumb (big deal) you don’t even have the best brain, so don’t go crazy. The ONLY thing you Homo saps have contributed to the planet is this: You are the only species that produced material that are toxic to all other species on the planet…including yourselves. That and a big ego, but I know some eagles that have that problem.
Road Warrior, go f&^k a tree.