National Semiconductor

We're glad that both these faculty who have UC roots have joined Stanford University.

His industrial experience includes semiconductor memory design at National Semiconductor and semiconductor technology development at Hewlett-Packard Labs.

He was assistant professor at Cornell University from 85 to 88.

And since 88, he's been on the faculty of Stanford University, where he is now professor and vice chair of electrical engineering.

And, and from there really, you know, kind of wanted to jump back into the little bit more entrepreneurial world.

I had been working with National Semiconductor-

Mm-hmm

... and in wandering through National Semiconductor's labs, I ran into a little research project they had which was an eight bit microprocessor with a little mini browser on it, and they had built a prototype of, of something that they didn't know what it was, but they were thinking around, you know, information appliances.

Yeah, so I guess I'll try and cut a very long story short.

But after being educated in the UK, I joined National Semiconductor in Greenock in Scotland.

And after a few years, I was given the opportunity to do a... secondment, I guess we'll call it, in the US in Silicon Valley.

So when you're a 20-year-old person and you get the opportunity to have a secondment in Disneyland, you don't say no.

And actually, as my wife tells the story, we accepted a two-year secondment 35 years ago.

So we enjoyed it so much that we decided to stay in the US.

And as you've indicated, I spent more than 30 years in the US working for major semiconductor companies, National Semiconductor, TI, and then most recently, Analog Devices.

And what brought you back here?

General Motors, the University of Texas at Arlington, and a growing network of commercial businesses helped support the city's economy.

National Semiconductor, Hughes Corporation, and the Arlington Independent School District were among the area's major employers, while six flags over Texas and the Texas Rangers had given Arlington an identity extending well beyond its borders.

In February 1988, the parks at Arlington Mall opened near South Cooper Street and Interstate 20, adding another major shopping destination to the growing city.

And at the same time, the local workforce was changing.

Who would have thought that that, uh, would be true? And we had an extreme commercial example of that as well, because another unusual thing about the story is that Acorn, a smallish, uh, PC company at the time, would produce its own microprocessor that became the dominant microprocessor in the world.

How did we do it? At that time, I gave two advantages to that microprocessor design team that neither Intel, Motorola, National Semiconductor, any of the big boys ever managed to give to their, uh, microprocessor design teams.

And the two advantages were, the first advantage was no people.

So this is the only microprocessor in the world that was produced by two people rather than 50 that everybody else knew.