Joel S. Birnbaum

Director of the development of the precursor of Hewlett-Packard precision architecture — the basis for all Hewlett-Packard's RISC computers — Birnbaum has also served as Senior Vice President for Research and Development...

Robert (Bob) P. Colwell

Leader of the development of Intel's Pentium 4 CPU, Colwell is also recognized as the chief IA-32 architect on the Pentium Pro, Pentium II, and Pentium III microprocessors. An electrical engineer and...

Tak H. Ning

Co-inventor and developer of the polysilicon-emitter self-aligned bipolar transistor, which is the basis of all modern bipolar transistor technology, Ning has made foundational contributions to semiconductor device physics. He received his Ph.D....

Anthony (Tony) M. Fadell

Developer of technologies including the Sony Magic Link, Motorola Envoy, and the Apple iPod, Fadell is a Lebanese American computer science engineer. He served as Senior Vice President of the iPod Division...

William (Bill) Worley Jr.

Principal creator of HP's two most important computer architectures, Worley's work includes PA-RISC (Precision Architecture—Reduced Instruction Set Computing) in the 1980s and PA-WW (Wide-Word) in the 1990s. He started programming in 1959 for...

Yvonne Claeys Brill

Inventor of the Electrothermal Hydrazine Thruster (EHT/Resistojet), Brill held the patent for a fuel-efficient rocket thruster that keeps satellites in orbit. A Canadian American rocket and jet propulsion engineer, she was involved...

B. (Bob) Ramakrishna Rau

Developer of the Very Long Instruction Word (VLIW) technology that is now standard in modern computer processors, Rau was widely recognized as an expert in VLIW computing, which is the basis of...

David L. Harame

Lead developer of the world's first successful silicon germanium (SiGe) technology for analog and communications circuits, Harame has served as a Director at IBM, an IBM Fellow, an IEEE Fellow, and a...

Tadashi Watanabe

Chief designer of SX-2, the first supercomputer introduced by NEC in 1983, which boasted the world's fastest speed at that time, Watanabe is a Japanese computer engineer widely recognized as a pioneering...

Clive Marles Sinclair

Developer of the first mass-market UK home computer for under £100, Sinclair was a British entrepreneur and inventor responsible for the ZX80, ZX81, and ZX Spectrum computers, as well as the slim-line...

William (Bill) F. Beausoleil

Designer of some of the world's first silicon-based computer systems in the 1950s and 1960s, Beausoleil is a triple fellow of IBM, Cadence, and the IEEE. Born Oct. 24, 1929, the day...

Donald Lester Bitzer

Co-inventor of the Plasma Display and sometimes called the "father of PLATO" (Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations), the first generalized computer-assisted instruction system, Bitzer was an American electrical engineer and computer...

Marcel Joseph Vogel

Inventor of the magnetic coating for the IBM 24" hard disk drive systems still in use, Vogel worked as a research scientist at the IBM San Jose Research Center for 27 years....

László Kozma

Designer of the first Hungarian digital computer, Kozma made lasting contributions to computing and electrical engineering. Due to the regulations of numerus clausus, his application to the Budapest University of Technology was rejected...

Charlie Bass

Co-founder of Ungermann-Bass (UB), the first large networking company independent of any computer manufacturer, Bass helped commercialize Ethernet, oversaw a successful IPO, and then saw the company purchased by Tandem Computers. In...

Ian Munro Ross

Co-inventor of epitaxy, used in silicon-based manufacturing processes for BJTs and modern CMOS and particularly important for compound semiconductors such as gallium arsenide, Ross was also an early pioneer in transistors who...

Gary K. Starkweather

Inventor of the laser printer, Starkweather invented it at Xerox's Webster research center in 1969, and collaborated on the first fully functional laser printing system at Xerox PARC in 1971. At Apple Computer...

Sam Harrell

Co-founder of SEMATECH, the partnership between the U.S. government and U.S.-based semiconductor manufacturers to regain competitiveness for the U.S. semiconductor industry, Harrell is a leading specialist in semiconductor and international trade and...

Michael S. Tomczyk

Best known for his role in the development and marketing of the Commodore VIC-20, the first microcomputer to sell one million units, Tomczyk is also recognized as an early pioneer in telecomputing....

John Adam Presper Eckert, Jr.

Co-inventor of ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic digital computer, Eckert was an American electrical engineer and computer pioneer. With John Mauchly, he presented the first course in computing topics (the Moore School...