Integrated Circuit Inventor Jack Kilby Dead at 81

geekotourist writes " 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." Update: 06/22 02:03 GMT by T : Kilby was 81, not 91 as the headline originally indicated.

Comments

... god rest his soul

[macaulay805]

God rest his soul, for without him, Slashdot would not be!

Re:... god rest his soul

[tomhudson]

... they could have at least published the notice in true slashdot form (you know, cut-n-paste the "Stephen King found dead" troll)

I just heard some sad news on talk radio - Integrated Circuit Inventor Jack Kilby was found dead at 91 in his Maine home this morning. There wasn't any more details, but athorities think he was hacked to death with a blunt spoon by author Stephen King. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will be willing to provide an alibi for Stephen - even if you didn't enjoy his work, there's no denying his contributions to popular culture by creating the IC, thus allowing us to troll millions. Truly a World icon.

I mean, show some respect. If he hadn't invented the IC, we wouldn't *have* Troll Tuesday.

Re:... god rest his soul

[silverkniveshotmail.]

I find it highly unlikely that had he not invented it that no one would have.
I have a hard time believing that major inventions like the lightbulb, the combustion engine, cell phones, the integrated circuit, etc. could end up not being just because of one person. The need for self propelled vehicles, mobile communication, etc will eventually prevail. Not to mention Robert Noyce.

You will be remembered...

[KennyP]

I now know who to blame my "misspent youth" on for living in the basement in the late '70's with my OSI C1P computer.

Thanks for everything!!!

Visualize Whirled P.'s

Re:You will be remembered...

[justanyone]

Graduate of Great Bend High School, Great Bend, Kansas (population 20,000), which is the county seat of Barton County, Kansas, which is named for Clara Barton. Great Bend is named thusly due to its location near a large bend in the Arkansas river (pronounced there as "Ahhr-Kansas").

There are road signs visible to all people driving into Great Bend on the state highways that enter town, saying something to the effect of, "Great Bend, Birthplace of Nobel Prize Winner Jack Kilby".

Great Bend's Paper, the Great Bend Tribune, covered a ceremony where the High School Commons area was renamed the Jack Kilby Commons.

Just FYI.

It's a sad day indeed.

[technoextreme]

To see a man of his importance go but least his influence is seen everywhere. I don't think anyone can claim that they are not affected by his invention. Intergrated circuits chips can be found everywhere.

Big dreams turn into nightmares

[Dancin_Santa]

While it's sad to see him go, I have to wonder if his legacy isn't the easing of mankind's stress levels but accelerating it to the stratosphere. Computers have done wonders in improving our productivity, but at the cost of making humans part of the machine. We live according to the schedule of the computer rather than the other way around.

Many nights I've sat here staring at this computer trying to think of a way to make my job easier. Unfortunately, the only way to do that is to toss the entire system out wholesale.

I don't imagine that Kilby thought it would lead to less human contact, less face to face time, and less free time for everyone. He probably thought of it as a way to increase efficiency and ultimately reduce our workload.

How incredibly wrong he was.

Re:Big dreams turn into nightmares

[my2commoncents]

I'm a little confused.

How have computers required us to live by their schedules? I have yet to use a computer which demands its users to accord to a strict schedule. If you are talking about IT, it's the same with any industry which requires maintenance; machines break at unfortunate times.

I think it's pretty presumptuous to assume what a scientist wants or doesn't want. The asocialism that you describe is hardly something inherent to computers, but rather around the culture of the modern business world.

Re:Big dreams turn into nightmares

[weighn]

Many nights I've sat here staring at this computer trying to think of a way to make my job easier. Unfortunately, the only way to do that is to toss the entire system out wholesale

Amen to that, Brother. I'm working on it and will post my design for a disintegrated chip very soon now.

Re:Big dreams turn into nightmares

[Eric604]

yes but you're confusing ICs and computers. ICs are also used in pocket calculators, videos, alarm clocks etc, those devices do not lead to the problems you mentioned.

Re:Big dreams turn into nightmares

[Anonymous Coward]

pocket calculators

Got a failing grade for sneaking one into a test.

videos

Got yelled at by the wife for renting porn.

alarm clocks

I don't think I have to explain why these are the work of the devil.

those devices do not lead to the problems

I suppose it depends how you define "problem".

Re:Big dreams turn into nightmares

[ldspartan]

He probably thought of it as a way to increase efficiency and ultimately reduce our workload.

More realistically, he was a smart person, and realized that humans like and need to work. Or should we all model ourselves after Paris Hilton?

Increased workload? Less human contact? Bullshit. The microchip brought us manufacturing automation and advanced communications, amongst many other things. Faster and more transparent communication has brought us more individual involvement in world events.

The problem is not in the computer, it is in your mind.

Re:Big dreams turn into nightmares

[jjthe2]

Even another step past that, he's confusing a 'personal computer' with computers in general. I'm a research in semiconductor devices but I rarely 'use' the computer in my office. It's only function is to write papers, check email, and surf the internet. However computers run all the equipment in the lab, and run all the simulations for the theoretical people. I think the grandparent is using a computer for the wrong things or using it in the wrong way. Stop playing so much solitaire, and stop emailing so many people.

Re:Big dreams turn into nightmares

[Brian_Ellenberger]

I don't imagine that Kilby thought it would lead to less human contact, less face to face time, and less free time for everyone. He probably thought of it as a way to increase efficiency and ultimately reduce our workload.

1) Less human contact? What about cell phones and the Internet? IM and email? Satellites communications? The abilility for at a very low cost to communicate with anyone in the world over the Internet? Human beings are far more connected now then they were.

2) Less face to face time? Depends on what you define as face-to-face time. Does it mean you don't have to fly half-way across the globe for a 4 hour meeting in India or Australia? Or does it mean your not getting out and meeting people as much as you like. For the former, see #1. For the latter, its your own fault. There is nothing the computer is doing to prevent you from hanging out with friends or spending time with people.

Re:Big dreams turn into nightmares

[maharvey]

He probably thought of it as a way to increase efficiency and ultimately reduce our workload. I suspect he had no such grandiose visions. A man who is skilled in and passionate about his work will change his world without meaning to, though rarely will the ripples be so large. Probably he was seriously geeking out over the coolness of it, wondering how to sell it to his new pointy-haired boss and avoid getting assigned to a crap job, yet mindful that this STILL wouldn't impress any chicks...

Re:Big dreams turn into nightmares

[bersl2]

I think you (and many other Slashdotters) have forgotten how new and immature these devices are. Perhaps part of the accelerating stress is the accelerating change; most people just cannot deal with it, and even those who can still have trouble with it.

Our circuits and algorithms have made some things infinitely easier, while their current forms have made others incredibly hard. That is no reason to just shut it down and go home. It's going to require out-of-the-box thinking, and that usually comes from fresh minds being in the right place at the right time.

It's a little bit trite to say, but what we have is too good not to be able to find a way to make it work well.

Re:Big dreams turn into nightmares

[stienman]

He probably thought of it as a way to increase efficiency and ultimately reduce our workload.
How incredibly wrong he was.

Is it just me or did you attribute a thought to someone else and then claim that they were wrong?

Wow. Were you simply not thinking, or do you do this all the time? I'm quite surprised. Perhaps you can demonstrate your technique by telling me what I'm thinking and how I'm so wrong about it.

-Adam

Re:Big dreams turn into nightmares

[deglr6328]

Hell yeah we should model ourselves after her! Don't forget girls, party all the time and always be super lame to everyone! :) ...stupid spoiled whore video playset comes with loseable cell phone, camcorder with night vision lens, fourteen hits of ecstacy.....

Re:Big dreams turn into nightmares

[bmgoau]

It did decrease our workoad, the only thing we didnt forsee was that it would inevitably mean we could do more things in less amount of time, which was our choice, not the computers. If you look at the world fact book cia edition, it states that the technological revolution of the late 20th century has caused less and less people to be involved in the production of our food. As for the question if we are happy or not, i once posed this to my great grandparents and grandparent before they died, both stated that they are happier, and that life is easier, which i take with much respect considered they saw the whole scope of advancement of the previous century. As for less human contact, i will pay that, but a catch twenty-two is that with the advent of email to video chat a whole new door of closeness bewen eachother has opened up. It may seem insignificant, but im sure you have all felt it....online, whether you would admit it, you feel more open, and more youself, since prejudice is non-existant. It did increase efficency, and decrease our work load, just ask any economist about the missing parallels between societies using and not using computers. As stated before it has just allowed us to do more in less time. Another corilation is that it has moved us from more hard labour to a more mind straining field of operation. Thats just me 2 cents.

Re:Big dreams turn into nightmares

[Novous]

>Computers have done wonders in improving our productivity, but at the cost of making humans part of the machine.

I think the problem with most people is that as soon as they find a way to make something more efficient, they immediately try to do more. Instead of taking a step back and enjoying life, most people just do more, thinking it'll make them happy.

Re:Big dreams turn into nightmares

[mcrbids]

While it's sad to see him go, I have to wonder if his legacy isn't the easing of mankind's stress levels but accelerating it to the stratosphere. Computers have done wonders in improving our productivity, but at the cost of making humans part of the machine.

We spend a smaller portion of our monthly budget on food than ever before, even as our average caloric intake has climbed nicely. While the proportion of money spent by the average household has not changed much, the square footage of the average house has shot through the roof.

The actual amount of time spent at work, on average, has been fairly steady, to perhaps dropping some. What we can buy, and what we can do with our income is generally more and better than ever.

Sorry. Go back to 1950. Houses are small, often unheated, or heated only with fireplaces. Air conditioning was still reserved for the "upper classes". TVs, if they existed, were black and white. Telephone coverage was spotty. Racism is/was alive and well. Food was expensive, unless you happened to be a farmer, and then, only certain types of food (what you grew) was cheap.

I wouldn't want to go back, and neither would you. Go back to your relaxed, comfortable computer desk, and enjoy the comforts that they only dreamed of in 1958, and shut up.

Computers have done wonders in improving our productivity, but at the cost of making humans part of the machine. We live according to the schedule of the computer rather than the other way around.

Oh, man. This is just so much ball cheese. Take a look at manufacturing jobs in the 1950s. (You know, manufacturing, that's now highly automated, often done by robots controlled by microprocessors?) An assembly line is essentially a giant machine, often blocks long, comprised of mechanical, electrical, and human parts. Can you imagine seeing this massive bohemoth of a machine, surrounding you, towering above you, two or three stories high? Who's "part of the machine"? Who's lifestyle is more regimented - yours, or theirs?

I write software that manages independent study programs for schools. The software I write enables teachers to teach, in the field, in homestudy programs by automating the generation of legally required progress reports and compliance paperwork. Rather than reducing flexibility, my software empowers teachers with more flexibility and power, saving as much as 10-20 hours per month per teacher doing administrative paperwork, so that they can... teach!

Additionally, I usually work at home, on the couch, with my kids - it's a majority of my worktime. I get a successful career, I get to fly around to visit with clients with whom I have a good, close, friendly relationship, and I do it armed with my laptop and my (digital) cell phone.

The effect isn't one of making either myself or the teachers live to the schedule of the computer, it's freeing us all from any set schedule whatsoever!

I don't imagine that Kilby thought it would lead to less human contact, less face to face time, and less free time for everyone.

Tell this to the ex-manufacturer bloke who now sells insurance, or runs a small business. Small businesses represent more of the US GNP than ever before. Small businesses are, by definition, close to their customers, and thus have more intimate relationships between the staff and the customers.

Next time, have at least some information to comment on before you do so, eh? For a good, economic and environmental "State of the World", I highly recommend "The Skeptical Environmentalist" by Bjorn Lomborg.

Re:Big dreams turn into nightmares

[cbreaker]

"I rarely 'use' the computer in my office. It's only function is to write papers, check email, and surf the internet. "

Okay, I'm confused. Because the computer isn't doing scientific calculations, you're not actually using it?

Not sure how you can avoid using the computer yet still .. err.. 'use' it to check e-mail and browse the internet.

Re:Big dreams turn into nightmares

[cbreaker]

IC's made computers possible. They led to further development into full processing units.

While I'm sure the IC would have been developed without this man eventually, it could have taken a lot longer and this mans initiative prevented the delay.

Re:Big dreams turn into nightmares

[evilviper]

I have to wonder if his legacy isn't the easing of mankind's stress levels but accelerating it to the stratosphere. Computers have done wonders in improving our productivity, but at the cost of making humans part of the machine.

And Oppenheimer is a mass murder...

All uses of all tools should not be automatically blamed on their inventor. That's not to say I think you're right about it anyhow.

Re:Big dreams turn into nightmares

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't need ICs to sneak notes into a test or buy a Playboy, and mechanical alarm clocks predate transistors by decades.

Re:Big dreams turn into nightmares

[sv0f]

Small businesses represent more of the US GNP than ever before.

This is an interesting statement. I never heard anyone make it before.

Do you mean it in the trivial sense of more $$$ than ever before?

Or do you mean it in the more meaningful sense of larger % of GDP?

I assume the latter. The front page of a Google search on "small business GDP" yielded one piece of real research. Chart 1 (p. 7) of that report tells a different story. Small business' share GDP (relative to large business') drops steadily from 1958 (the first year shown) to 1980, is relatively steady until 1992, and then experiences a slight increase until 2000 (the last year shown). Over the entire span, there is a substantial decrease on the small business' share of GDP.

That's just one study of course, done by an economist at what appears to be a pro small business organization. One that I merely skimmed.

Could you point me to some better data?

Re:Big dreams turn into nightmares

[jcuervo]

Well, whaddya know.

It disintegrated.

Re:Big dreams turn into nightmares

[jred]

You forgot moderately hot. I can think of a few women I *don't* want to act like that. But if we can make them all be hot...

Re:Big dreams turn into nightmares

[NitsujTPU]

Actually, he probably was a researcher with an idea that he pursued to its realization.

He probably thought "hmm, I could do this," with little thought regarding its impact.

I'm not sure how much research is done with some specific goal other than learning a bit more. I'm not sure that physicists find subatomic particles thinking "the top quark will change the world!"

Re:Big dreams turn into nightmares

[mcrbids]

It was meant as a percentage of GNP. This is a case of differing definitions: what is a "Small Business"? My statistics (no, I don't have an online resource) are for "SMB" or "Small-Midsize Business" in comparison to the GNP, which is near 80%.

Your statistics compare SMALL businesses against LARGE, apparently ignoring the "mid" tier altogether. (Havent' read the report in detail, but that's what my first skim seems to indicate)

(sigh)

Perhaps the old adage is correct; There are three kinds of lies: Lies, damn lies, and statistics.

Re:Big dreams turn into nightmares

[ooze]

You can't blame any technology on for how it's put to use. It's always humans that use any way and means they have to exploit everything more efficiently.

Like they say...guns don't kill people, people kill people. And while controlling guns makes killing other people harder for most people, and thus will reduce the death toll, it certainly won't chnage anything about humans being what they are.

The only way to make thiw world a better place is to get rid of mankind. And the only thing you have to do to achive that is lean back and watch.

Re:Big dreams turn into nightmares

[Tyler Durden]

Racism is/was alive and well.

How does technology solve racism?

Additionally, I usually work at home, on the couch, with my kids - it's a majority of my worktime. I get a successful career, I get to fly around to visit with clients with whom I have a good, close, friendly relationship, and I do it armed with my laptop and my (digital) cell phone.

So you give one example of a person who is able to use technology to get more quality time with his family and friends and that's supposed to apply to everybody?

Many (if not most) people have trouble finding the time to spend with their families (or just getting a family) while maitaining a decent-paying job in today's world. That's probably why divorce rates are so high, causing another host of problems.

I don't know if the causes are technology, how it's used or whatever. But you'd have to be willfully obtuse to deny that the issues are there. Everyone just assumes that if we keep working harder and harder we'll be getting some reward that will be worth what we're losing to get it.

Re:Big dreams turn into nightmares

[fLameDogg]

Is it just me or did you attribute a thought to someone else and then claim that they were wrong?

Gah! Mod points! Give me mod points!

Re:Big dreams turn into nightmares

[sv0f]

It was meant as a percentage of GNP.

Good.

This is a case of differing definitions: what is a "Small Business"? [...] Your statistics compare SMALL businesses against LARGE, apparently ignoring the "mid" tier altogether.

Ahh, makes sense.

(sigh)

Perhaps the old adage is correct; There are three kinds of lies: Lies, damn lies, and statistics.

No need to *sigh*. I learned something. Going forward, I'll know that this distinction exists, and therefore be a better consumer of other people's numbers.

Condolences

[misophist]

Condolences to his family. I didn't know him but I know people who did and they all said he was a kind and decent gentleman in addition to his technical brilliance.

All the proof I need.

[MyLongNickName]

Workers don't need vacation! Now get back to work, you lazy oafs. I expect to see some more ground breaking inventions before I get back from the 19th hole.

Sincerely,
Your friendly neighborhood PHB

Re:All the proof I need.

[tomhudson]

If slashdot had been around then, he'd have never invented the IC - he'd have been too busy posting from his teletype machine during working hours at 120 baud (yes, there are speeds lower than 300), then doing work off-hours to make up for it.

Re:All the proof I need.

[Anonymous Coward]

You kids these days with your fancy 120 baud teletypes, zooming around like you own the place.
45 baud is all we needed in my day..

Re:All the proof I need.

[tomhudson]

Well, the real old-timers did it in morse, but the %$"&*£ lameness filter put an end to that.

Re:All the proof I need.

[josecanuc]

Hell 45 baud is still used every day today by amateur radio operators. It's a thriving mode and is essentially teletype voltages/timings "adapted" to audio tones on a radio.

We call it RTTY - Radio-Teletype.

Uh, I believe he was 81.

[inotocracy]

He was 81, not 91.

Re:Uh, I believe he was 81.

[SpeckledJim]

Overclocked, if you will.

Re:Interesting

[technoextreme]

Ummmm.... This article was just posted five minutes ago. It is late enough on the east coast where people might be sleeping. I didn't know slashdot had that much traffic.

So Long

[Anonymous Coward]

And Thanks For All The Fish

He was 81

[invisigoth]

He was 81. /Blatant karma-whoring.

A great influence

[vivin]

One of the very few men, in all of mankind's history who's influence is everywhere. Without him, our world would have been a lot different. God rest his soul. And lest I offend the athiests ;), may his recycled remains find use in some noble purpose. It is amazing how such a small invention has given rise to what we see today.

Re:A great influence

[Alioth]

He was a pioneer, but without him the world would have been hardly different. Noyce independently invented the IC too. If it hadn't been Noyce, someone else would have done it. There were probably dozens of people who would have developed the IC within 5 years - it's just he was first.

Re:we all gonna die.

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

I'm not going to die.

Rest in peace

[gnuguru]

Rest in peace Jack, and thanks.

His name will live on...

[__aaptsy9143]

His name will forever be engraved in the J-K flip-flop. (That's right, J-K did not stand for John Kerry)

Re:His name will live on...

[TummyX]

Explain these then.

Re:His name will live on...

[ortholattice]

His name will forever be engraved in the J-K flip-flop.

This is probably an urban legend. More likely it was the initials of John J. Kardash, who in the 1950's arbitrarily used his initials on these pins on his blueprints, and it stuck.

Re:His name will live on...

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

I thought it stood for Joanne K. Rowling

Re:His name will live on...

[FlashBuster3000]

Did noone of you notice this is a joke?

I learned that this is for "jump" and "kill".
And quite obviously the other flip-flops have reasonable names too (like Reset and Set for the RS-Flip-Flop and not Richard-Stallman-Flipflop as you might think).

Re:His name will live on...

[Redrover5545]

RS-Flip-Flop and not Richard-Stallman-Flipflop as you might think).

Don't you mean GNU/RS flip-flop?

Re:His name will live on...

[FlashBuster3000]

wow, i get "overrated" for a post explaining something, and the original post gets "4, Informative" for a not-so-obvious joke or mis-statement...

Sad day, good luck Jack

[Solr_Flare]

Many thanks, none of us would be here without your work. You certainly made a difference.

thank you, Mr. Kilby

[PanBanger]

And my right hand especially thanks you.

I gotta say it.

[Kaisum]

So long and thanks for all the chips.

Re:Interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

Because:
- his pseudonym isnt Linus Torvalds
- he didnt lead an MS antitrust lawsuit
- hes' not involved in the SCO lawsuit

As a rank amateur robotics/electronics buff, I am only vaguely privy to the true breadth of what his innovations mean to electronics as a whole.

Let the flames begin. What do I care. The server hosting the flame war youre about to engage in wouldnt be possible if it werent for Jack.

Like the original poster said, this irony will be lost on all of you anyway.

Hard to believe

[billdar]

"one of the few people who can look around the globe and say to himself 'I changed how the world functions.'"

That would be surreal. It makes me wonder if he was satified in the path his technology has taken... or just pissed about royalties.

81, not 91.

[winkydink]

From http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=528&e=1& u=/ap/20050622/ap_on_hi_te/obit_kilby

"Jack St. Clair Kilby was born in 1923 in Great Bend, Kan. His father was the owner of a small electric company, and Kilby became interested in radio tubes while listening to big band radio in the 1940s."

May he rest in peace.

Re:81, not 91.

[kc32]

He graduated from Great Bend High School in 1944. There's a plaque there on the north side of the commons area, right behind where I sat playing Gameboy with my cousins during lunch. I graduated this year, and I met him my freshman year.

Rest in peace.

And think...

[niteskunk]

Would we be where we are in technology today? Would someone else have thought of the concept of integrated circuitry? Maybe... what about a more efficient (or less efficient) one? Thank you, Jack.

Re:And think...

[NixieBunny]

Robert Noyce of Fairchild thought of it a few months later, so we would be pretty much where we are today except TI wouldn't be quite so big. (Noyce founded Intel later, so he's had no shortage of influence on the world.)

Re:Interesting

[superpulpsicle]

No need to get mad. The article wording isn't the most exciting.

It should sum it up by saying he was one of the inventor of a handheld calculator. There are too many parts in a computer invented by different people.

Re:we all gonna die.

[Anonymous Coward]

Read an interesting article last month (from a local magazine). Seems we might live up to a thousand years old, if we may believe Aubrey de Grey.

No questions, just google on his name.

For I don't believe in heaven, but he did... AND with his innovations, I guess he must be sitting there with some great new C-cup women next to him :-P

Slaves to humanity

[DigiShaman]

Well that's just it. Computers allow for more work to be done in the same amount of given time. As such, if you wish to remain competitive in the work force so to stay employeed, we must use these tools to maintain an advantage.

Basically, we are slaves to ourselves. We always have been, only we have become more efficient at it.

Re:Slaves to humanity

[benw1979]

Computers allow for more work to be done in the same amount of given time.

Then shouldn't we be going home earlier?

Re:Slaves to humanity

[DigiShaman]

You would think. But what happens when everyone but you has this technology? It's obvious. They will use this free time for more productivity in order to be on top of the competition. As such, we all most compete as well or be left bankrupt and without a job while everyone else is following suite.

This is what I've been trying to convey in my original post.

After Two Gory Hours Playing Counter-Strike

[bohemian_observer]

Returning from two hours of CS mayhem spent on Inter-CPU/ATI-GPU I feel terribly sorry for this dude.

He will be missed

[ichbinderharlekin]

Jack Kilby was a humble man. As the guest of honor at a co-op luncheon at TI he simply thanked everyone for honoring him with a hearty round of applause and sat down.

Just to point out an interesting tidbit about his invention of the IC, he was a new employee at TI in 1958. While everyone else was on vacation he had to find something to work on, as he had no vacation time saved up yet. (In those days TI would normally shut down most operations for maintenance and most employees would take their vacation) As much as those around him told him that his idea would never work, he used his time to prove them all wrong.

(history is just about the only thing you actually learn in those training days when you first start a job at a company like Texas Instruments)

Re:He will be missed

[Dancin_Santa]

history is just about the only thing you actually learn in those training days when you first start a job at a company like Texas Instruments

I don't know firsthand, but I've heard that at the Arthur Andersen training days they teach you how to hold your liquor.

Re:He will be missed

[Anonymous Coward]

>he used his time to prove them all wrong.

Nowadays he'd be fired for using company resources to do side projects that management had already disapproved.

Re:we all gonna die.

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder what will happen when the person who invents immortality eventually dies? It's going to be kind of ironic, but also unavoidable. Possibly the same individual who invents it will live to see the heat death of the universe, but that seems kind of unlikely.

American Giant Without the Pedigree

[Anonymous Coward]

Jack Kilby is an American giant without the educational pedigree: i.e., a degree from MIT, Harvard, Princeton, etc. He attended a public institution and studied a subject, engineering, that is supposed to match the dull IQ of plain folks.

The truth of the matter is that education is only one of many prerequisites for earth-shattering technical success. The other components are an environment that encourages free thinking without the shackles of tradition (e.g. ancestor worship in China and the caste system in India) and a living environment which is comfortable (i.e. where people do not lie, cheat, and steal).

Another giant is Carver Mead. He is a "hick" boy who is regarded as the father of neural networks down at Caltech. He too did not have an educational pedigree but became a professor at Caltech.

Yet, another example is Robert Floyd. He only had a bachelor of science. He never obtained a graduate degree but managed to reach the rank of full professor of computer science at Stanford University. Furthermore, he contributed significantly to the concept of proving algorithms to be correct.

Just as Professor Norman Matloff has stated over and over, the USA has no need for H-1B workers from India or China. America already has the homegrown talent. Even if, perchance, India should have a genius or two, they would be trapped in bad environments that would stifle their creativity just as Chinese and Indian society have done for nearly a millenium.

Re:American Giant Without the Pedigree

[InfiniteWisdom]

He attended a public institution and studied a subject, engineering

He attended University of Illinois at Urbabna Champaign... I don't know about 1947, but today, UIUC is a top engineering school. #4 according to the 2006 USNews ranking. Nobody in their right mind would suggest that you *can't* be successful without a good education, but an overwhelming majority of people who have made groundbreaking discoveries have.

free thinking without the shackles of tradition... living environment which is comfortable (i.e. where people do not lie, cheat, and steal)

*Sob* I never reaized I was living in this paradise filled with saints. But you're right... I just looked out of the window and noticed the faint halos around all my fellow american's heads. Dear George W. Bush. Thank you for your unrelenting honesty, for not shovelling taxpayer's money into the pockets of a few cronies, and for eschewing religous and traditional shackles and allowing science to grow unfettered.

Dude seriously though. Open your eyes a little. The US is being left behind in more fields than I can count. While we debate whether to teach Creationism in schools instead of evolution, an increasing fraction of significant breakthroughs these days are coming from Japan, South Korea and China. Funding agencies like NSF have had their budgets slashed to the point where researchers who's have several grants funded a year have been unable to get a single grant in the past several years. DARPA has decided to stop funding research that doesn't produce and "immediate military benefit". NASA is being forced to work on ambitious projects without being given adequate funds to pursue those without cancelling their science projects.

This administration is pursuing a dangerously short-sighted policy, and while people like you are waving flags and sticking bumper stickers on your SUVs proclaiming how great America is, the rest of the world is rapidly catching up. Once existing grants run out (and we're at the point where that's starting to happen), graduate school enrollments will plummet and the wonderful research instututes that have kept America on top all this time will effectively have their throats cut.

Blind patriotism like yours is counterproductive and dangerous.

Re:American Giant Without the Pedigree

[Anonymous Coward]

Most people I know have never heard of UIUC. I think you're overstating its precieved prestige. When my parents were discussing universities with me, they heard of Harvard and Yale but do you think they know of Texas, Berkely, or UIUC? Most "common" people really haven't heard of these obviously serious and credible schools but popular media and culture teaches people only to blindly revere the schools of the elite rich.

The fact that Jack Kilby went to measly state schools and, armed with his education and initaitve, created one of the most revolutionary and important inventions of our times, speaks against the elitism and popular perceptions in our culture.

On a slightly similar subject. I have a question. Why do we put so much faith in seemingly arbitary rankings? Some hacks at a publishing company put together their idea of how to rank schools and we take it as the gospels. Schools like Stanford (who have earned their prestiege, not gained it becuase of a magazine's ranking) knock these meaningless benchmarks becuase they use the stupidest and whackiest measures.

None of these damn morons at US News have sat in classrooms and received an education. And just how does one qualify a "top" school? Does the fact that my school spends 600 million dollars a year in research really mean anything when it comes to my measly bachelors degree? You can't judge an education this simply. I go to a relatively low-key school (UT Dallas - the school started by the founders of TI), we spend very little on research (compariatively - to big name engineering schools) at the moment, and our rankings in the popular magazines are nothing to brag about. Yet, for our low prestige, our graduates still manage to find jobs at the top companies such as TI, Boeing, Nokia, Cisco, Nortel, and countless other important companies. Parents and students who base their judgements of a school based on some pencil-pushing journalism major behind a desk at US News will not get a fair judgement of the quality of our education based on arbitary rankings.

When it comes to education, its about having qualified professors and having initiatve to learn and succeed.

Re:American Giant Without the Pedigree

[Anonymous Coward]

Most people I know have never heard of UIUC.

Then most people you know don't know dick about engineering schools. Harvard and Yale are good medical and law schools, but they don't count for jack when it comes to engineering.

There are excellent private engineering schools, of course (e.g., MIT and CMU).

Re:American Giant Without the Pedigree

[sv0f]

Spot on.

When I was a young man, it was well known that the easy way into the likes of Yale was to say you wanted to major in "applied science" or whatever they called engineering in their endearingly anachronistic way.

Re:American Giant Without the Pedigree

[sv0f]

Most people I know have never heard of UIUC. I think you're overstating its precieved prestige. When my parents were discussing universities with me, they heard of Harvard and Yale but do you think they know of Texas, Berkely, or UIUC? Most "common" people really haven't heard of these obviously serious and credible schools but popular media and culture teaches people only to blindly revere the schools of the elite rich.

Who cares if you're parents or most of the people you know are uniformed about which schools are good for which programs. The same morons think Duke is a top 5 university because of Coach K.

Anyone technical knows the worth of UIUC's engineering school. (No, I am not a graduate.) And Berkeley!? Jesus Christ man, it's probably one of the top 10 universities in the world! You sure your parents never heard of it?

None of these damn morons at US News have sat in classrooms and received an education.

I detest the rankings too, but this statement is ridiculous.

Does the fact that my school spends 600 million dollars a year in research really mean anything when it comes to my measly bachelors degree?

For most, no. But if you want to do research as an undergrad, you're better off at a top research university.

Re:American Giant Without the Pedigree

[Johnso]

University of Illinois is "not so good" when it comes to traditional fields?

From http://www.publications.uiuc.edu/info/rankings.htm l:

"U.S.News & World Report rates Illinois as one of the top 10 public national universities that grant doctoral degrees, according to a 2004 ranking of America's best colleges.

Illinois is among the nation's top 20 universities that grant doctoral degrees, according to an Associated Press compilation of 1995 rankings by the National Research Council.

Kiplinger's Personal Finance ranks Illinois eighth in its "100 Best Values in Public Colleges" for 2003.

The 2004 Fiske Guide to Colleges views Illinois as one of the 43 "best buys" based on the quality of the academic offering in relation to the cost of attendance.

Money magazine's 1998 guide to colleges ranks Illinois 18th in a list of the top 100 schools providing the best education for the money.

In 1998, Science Watch ranked Illinois fifth in the nation for its scientific impact on agricultural science from a field of the top 100 federally funded universities in the United States.

The University Library houses the largest public university library in the world, with more than 22 million items in the main library and over 40 departmental libraries and divisions. More than one million patrons from around the world use the online catalog each week.

Grainger Engineering Library Information Center is the largest engineering library in the country and one of the world's most technologically advanced information management and retrieval centers.

New Mobility magazine ranked Illinois first among "disability-friendly colleges" in 1998.

Dance Teacher Now magazine ranked the Illinois Dance program in the top 10 in 1998.

A 1995 study by the National Research Council placed 10 Illinois doctoral programs within the top 10 nationwide.
Chemical engineering--5
Chemistry--8
Civil engineering--5
Computer science--8
Electrical engineering--3
Materials science--5
Mechanical engineering--9
Music--10
Physics--8
Psychology- -5
According to rankings in U.S.News & World Report in 2004 (unless otherwise noted):
The College of Business ranks in the top 25 (2004) graduate colleges for business and is tied for 11th in undergraduate business education (2004).
The graduate program in the College of Education ranks 27th in the nation.
Illinois's graduate program in engineering is fourth (2004) in the country, and its undergraduate program is tied at fourth (2003).
The College of Fine and Applied Arts is tied for tenth among graduate programs in the country (1997).
The Master of Fine Arts program is listed among the top 25 in the country.
The College of Law ranks 27th among the nation's 177 accredited law schools. It is ranked among the top 10 public law schools.
The Graduate School of Library and Information Science's program is tied for first in the nation (1999).
The College of Veterinary Medicine is tied for 12th in the country (2000).
Several undergraduate programs rank in the top 25 in the country (2004).
Accountancy--2
Aeronautical engineering--7
Agricultural engineering--2
Biomedical engineering--25
Business management--13
Chemical engineering--7
Civil engineering--1
Computer engineering--4
Electrical engineering--4
Environmental engineering--4
Finance--16
Industrial engineering--12
International business--25
Insurance/risk management--6
Management info systems--15
Marketing--12
Materials science--1
Mechanical engineering--6
Nuclear engineering--8
Quantitative analysis--10
Real estate--5
More than 60 graduate programs and speciality areas rank in the top 30 in the country.
Accountancy--4
Aeronautical engineering--9
Agricultural engineering--5
Architecture--19 (1997)
Audiology--20
Biological sciences--24 (2002)
Ch

Re:American Giant Without the Pedigree

[meadowsp]

You do realise India and China aren't the same country don't you?

Re:American Giant Without the Pedigree

[Anonymous Coward]

Not a reply to the parent as such, but to the many parent posts.

Why not mark the passing of a great innovator, rather than wallowing in paranoid insecurity?

Re:American Giant Without the Pedigree

[Anonymous Coward]

Who cares if you're parents

"your".

I take it that your school doesn't rank near the top in English.

Re:American Giant Without the Pedigree

[KlomDark]

Oh yes, they merged lately. There was a big press release. Unfortunately after the initial excitement wore off, the stock price has seen a steady decline as investors are too dumb to invest in long term results.

Re:American Giant Without the Pedigree

[BK425]

Yer not from 'round here are ya? ; )

Re:American Giant Without the Pedigree

[Anonymous Coward]

For some reason, when I read Carver Mead, I see Meat Carver Head. Imagine a dude with a meat carver for a head. I'm not saying it's funny... more off-putting, really.

Re:American Giant Without the Pedigree

[sv0f]

I take it that your school doesn't rank near the top in English.

Actually, it does.

But it's not known for its typing major.

Yup, 81

[ForrestWhite]

I saw the blatant typo on his age, but I'm glad some of you already corrected it. If only we all will have a long-lasting effect such as his after we perish. Let's look toward the future while celebrating the accomplishments of the people of the past.

Re:we all gonna die.

[lee1026]

I am planning to never die. hey, I'm doing pretty well so far.

Wipe those tears away

[xbsd]

While it's sad to see him go, I have to wonder if his legacy isn't the easing of mankind's stress levels but accelerating it to the stratosphere. Computers have done wonders in improving our productivity, but at the cost of making humans part of the machine. We live according to the schedule of the computer rather than the other way around...How incredibly wrong he was.

LOL buddy, brush those tears from your eyes, he didn't invent your nemesis (the computer), just the integrated circuit.

Re:Wipe those tears away

[Anonymous Coward]

You are definitely a troll if you think it is just the integrated circuits. ICs are used in more places than your funky computer - ranging from your watch to the Intel 8080 which is used in Mars Rover. So shove it up your ass and keep quite.

The world would be different?

[jpmkm]

Half the comments so far are saying something to the effect of the world would be a completely different place if Kilby didn't invent the integrated circuit. Slashdot wouldn't exist, we wouldn't have personal computers, etc. Do you people honestly think that Jack Kilby was the ONLY person who could have possibly envisioned integrated circuits? Do you people honestly think that we would still be building computers with discrete components if it wasn't for Kilby? I'm not saying that what he did wasn't a major accomplishment and the integrated ciruit did indeed change the world. However, it is quite foolish to think that we would not have integrated circuits today if Jack Kilby hadn't invented them.

Re:The world would be different?

[putko]

Just look at Noyce, who had the same idea at the same time. It seems clear the time was ripe for the idea.

This is so often the case. The entire human race wasn't sitting still, waiting for the guy to make the transistor -- just 99.999999% of us.

Re:The world would be different?

[Anonymous Coward]

Bitch about credit for a hypothetical eventual invention of ICs when few people have ever heard of Jack Kilby. Now look at how revered Darwin is compared with Alfred Lord Wallace. The fact is, even when you can show someone else independently came up with the same thing, people - and history - don't give a shit.

Re:The world would be different?

[sr180]

But still, he did it, and he did it before everyone else. So, he gets the honour and the accolades for it.

Re:The world would be different?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Do you people honestly think that Jack Kilby was the ONLY person who could have possibly envisioned integrated circuits?"

We don't how long it would have been before someone else invented the IC. We do know Jack Kilby got there first therefore he gets the credit. If you don't like it, go cry in the corner.

Re:The world would be different?

[jpmkm]

I never said he shouldn't get the credit and I never said I didn't like it.

Re:The world would be different?

[Anonymous Coward]

Technically speaking, the method that Noyce and Hoerni came up with is much closer to how we do it today:

http://www.silicon-valley-story.de/sv/chip.html

That is not to say Jack Kilby wasn't smart or doesn't deserve any credit, just that crediting him entirely and calling him the father of ICs isn't quite true.

My memory is fuzzy, but if I recall Kilby's technique was largely impractical for large scale manufacturing while Noyce/Hoerni's method can be considered the "great great grandfather" of today's industry.

Re:The world would be different?

[adminispheroid]

You know what they say -- if it wasn't for Edison, we'd all be surfing the web by candlelight.

Re:The world would be different?

[Anonymous Coward]

Our society is rooted in the notion that some people are better than others. The cultivation of personality cults and individual fame is a fulltime occupation for the media companies, and is the basis of our easy acceptance of social and economic inequality. The reason some people are rich is because they "deserve" to be rich, etc.

In fact all invention is done by human society, and not by individuals. Invention involves a long process of evolutionary exploration maintained by a large group of people. Jack Kilby is as much of a genius as anyone else is, and he *himself* said his contribution was luck. He was NOT being humble. He was being sincere and intelligent.

Of course someone else would has been credited with the "invention" of the IC if Kilby had not been there. And the wheel, the battery, the oil lamp, the electric lamp, the transister, the internal combustion engine. They all occured at a time in history when they could, absolutely independent of the contribution of any individual. We learn to recieve, and hence award brownie points when we are in kindergarten, and we cannot function in our society without them.

Access and privilage are much more important than talent, but such arguments are in a sense anti-American, or at least anti "American Dream".

Rest in Peace

[MikeJ9919]

Thank you

Thanks

[bmgoau]

The materialistic things that i most enjoy in my life are a product of your invention. Man kind would not be where it is without you. Thank You and rest in peace.

Re:Interesting

[VoidWraith]

I think the proper phrasing of that last bit would be, "Ah, yes, but can it run Linux?" followed by something like "Wait... Damn!"

Re:we all gonna die.

[tomhudson]

Well, if you eat an apple a day for 365,000 days, I can guarantee you'll live to be a thousand years old.

Lets just say he didn't die - he cashed in his chips. (cashed in his cache? cached in his chips?)

Re:Interesting

[reverseengineer]

You realize that it's only about 9:40PM now on the East Coast, right? Unless you had some east coast in mind other than the one for the U.S. That's not terribly late, you know, especially for caffeine-fueled geeks.

To steer this comment back on topic though, I'd like to thank Mr. Kilby for his tremendous accomplishment; the modern world owes much to your work (and of course to that of Mr. Noyce as well). I was at UIUC in 2000 when Jack Kilby (BSEE '47) won his Nobel Prize, and I remember the publicity at the time. He was recognized during halftime of a football game that fall- I swear he got more cheers than the team did any time that season.

I'm A Potential Imortal

[SteveM]

I'm Not Dead Yet!

SteveM

Re:Interesting

[TERdON]

ICs are geeky. Though, the hardware geeks aren't of exactly the same flavour as the software ones...

A true hacker

[5plicer]

From the substitute for going on vacation article:

"I ... built up a circuit using discrete silicon elements. Packaged grown-junction transistors were used. Resistors were formed by cutting small bars of silicon and etching to value. Capacitors were cut from diffused silicon power transistor wafers, metallized on both sides. This unit was assembled and demonstrated to Adcock on August 28, 1958."

This guy was a true hacker! I wish I had the opportunity to meet him. Rest in peace Jack Kilby.

when invention still meant something

[jacquesm]

and patents were 'for real'. People like this is what the patent system was made for, not the bunch of subverters that are out there right now switching fields and patenting the obvious, including mathematical formula and strings of bits.

thank you mr. Kilby, for a career and a future.

Re:we all gonna die.

[NanoGator]

"he is dead... and ?"

Ever lost a close friend or a relative? Did you say "..and?" then, too? If not, then why not RTFA and find out how he contributed to your life?

Re:Interesting

[daviq]

"I swear he got more cheers than the team did any time that season." It's awesome to hear that geeks have acutally been reconised by what I assume was the general public. Rest in peace.

How old was he?

[RealityMogul]

Other news sources are reporting he was 81, not 91 as the heading states.

Was Kilby essential to the invention of the chip?

[G4from128k]

God rest his soul, for without him, Slashdot would not be!

First, I mean no disrespect to Kilby -- he clearly was an innovator of the first order and an accomplished inventor. But to say that without him, slashdot would not have happened is to misread the broad sweep of history in general and the history of chips in particular. So many great ideas bubble out of the context of the time, not the minds of some unique person. Eras are primed for particular inventions. Even the IC was essentially invented by two independent inventors-- don't forget Robert Noyce who also "invented" the chip. Kilby's chip may have come a few months earlier, but Noyce's chip was on silicon.

At worst, without Kilby, the IC would have been delayed half a year and all of us with have slightly lower post-counts.

Your're right

[Anonymous Coward]

I remember early articles about the integrated circuit. It really was an evolutionary development; sort of what we would now call a hybrid IC. For sure, somebody would have come up with it within a few years. What I think was critical for the IC was a market. That market was provided by NASA. I think that, without NASA's technological drive, the IC would have taken quite a few more years to become common. What the IC provided was something that was rugged enough to withstand launch forces and was light. It costs a lot to launch something. The engineering work to make something lighter pays big dividends. The IC happened because NASA needed it.

Re:Your're right

[Detritus]

The USAF also needed ICs for Minuteman guidance systems. Intelligent missile guidance systems had already been designed years before. It took integrated circuit technology to make them small enough for practical use.

Did he get rich?

[Blahbooboo3]

Did he get rich off his invention or did the MBA's take all the money? :)

Progressive management at tech companies

[John Miles]

Nowadays he'd be fired for using company resources to do side projects that management had already disapproved.

The most famous American tech companies used to be pretty good about this sort of thing. I bought a Tektronix employee handbook from the late Fifties on eBay awhile back, and it's a jaw-droppingly enlightened piece of work. Read it, and you'll wish you owned a time machine and a bus ticket to Portland, Oregon.

People speak in hushed tones about Google's "spend one day per week on your personal project" policy as if it's a radical innovation. They're like, who are those guys, a bunch of Communists?

Now... imagine how radical it sounded in the 1950s when Tektronix actually gave their engineers the key to the company storeroom on the weekends and a polite request, conveyed in the employee handbook, not to abuse the privilege.

The famous "HP Way", originating 30 or 40 years before Carly showed up, was another expression of the same idea: give your employees enough rope and they'll pull your company in directions you never would have imagined.

Nowadays, Hewlett-Packard sells ink for a living, Texas Instruments earns more from its legal department than from its engineering department, and policies like Google's sound like something from a Star Trek script. It seems that the best we can hope for is that the American technology industry as a whole relearns what it knew fifty years ago.

Re:Progressive management at tech companies

[kabz]

Great post! If I remember correctly, Steve Wozniac hung out at HP and blagged components to help with building the first Apple.

Go HP!

Re:Progressive management at tech companies

[Apotsy]

He and the other Steve offered to build their marvelous Apple I for them. HP said "no thanks". So did Atari and a few other companies. That's where the garage came into play.

Re:Progressive management at tech companies

[buss_error]

Nowadays, Hewlett-Packard sells ink for a living, Texas Instruments earns more from its legal department than from its engineering department, and policies like Google's sound like something from a Star Trek script. It seems that the best we can hope for is that the American technology industry as a whole relearns what it knew fifty years ago.

You mean that SCOX wasn't the first to come up with litigation as a business model? (grin)

Fifty years ago, corporate America didn't have as many MBA around pushing for ever higher stock prices.

Also look around today. Today, nothing is fundimentally different than fifty five years ago. All technology devemopments since then have been, for the most part, improvements rather than basic shifts in the underlying technology. What US government policy hasn't killed off in basic research, "free markets" and corporate interests have.

The way to fund basic research is to hand a bag of money to people that know a lot, then get out of the way. Don't tell them that you can't use that stem cell line, or that you can't go around carbon dating things that date back more than six thousand years because the world didn't exsist then. First, because it is just plain silly, second, the restrictions give false information that then points to false paths for further research. False paths and untrue 'facts' are great for religious beliefs, but not so good in science or the real world.

Re:Progressive management at tech companies

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, not just this. I remember an article a few years ago about a scientist who came up with a way of reproducing any type of biological material (via DNA) thousands of times faster than previously available. He worked at a large pharmaceutical company and had to work on a project. The project was concluded 18 months ahead of schedule. With funding still coming in and a very powerful computer available, he worked on his pet project. Suddenly genetic material was cheap, fast and available in massive quantities. The scientific world went on it's ear after he produced his work. The company made millions (him too). But after that, instead of being ignored by top brass, he saw timetables, was asked to fill in flow and progress charts and come up with bi-weekly progress reports. They wanted to know when they could expect to see returns on new investments from work they thought would bring in the most profits. (percentages of returns per year estimates too). He was gone in less than 3 months. The company just couldn't understand why......

Re:Progressive management at tech companies

[Amadawn]

Either the parent has no clue what he is talking about (Texas Instruments) or he is working for one of our (lawyer-happy competitors). As far as I know TI has only gone to the court (in the last decade) to protect itself from lawsuits in order to defend itself, but we are certainly no RAMBUS...

As a Texas Instruments employee I can tell you that we have tons of smart people working like mad in _technical_ challenges. Our company is one of the few Fortune 500 companies whose CEO is an Electrical Engineer!

It is hard to believe that lawyers can get your chips into more than 50% or the world's cell phones...

What is with this "slashdot attitude" of despising every corporation (except Google)? Bash some corporation, get "+5 (Insihtful)" and lots of karma.

Most of the cool things that you discuss in Slashdot everyday would simply not be possible if it were not for the likes of TI, Motorola, Intel and heck, even Microsoft. I am not saying that they are not evil or greedy sometimes, but certainly that not all of them are, and even those that are, not all the time.

Open source might give you a nice operating system, but not a cool cellphone (you need fabs for that, and fabs cost billions of dollars).

So let's give credit when credit is due, and stop these random bashings that just make you look like a clueless fool.

Cheers,

Angel

P.S.- This not intended as a _trol_, just as a reality check.

Re:Progressive management at tech companies

[Anonymous Coward]

The way to fund basic research is to hand a bag of money to people that know a lot, then get out of the way.

Sometimes, this works great, and you get great inventions. Other times, all you get is an automated cat washer powered by static cling, that costs ten thousand dollars, and really only works on cats that weigh less than six pounds.

Yes, it's good to have great technology, but if people are expected to throw bags of their money at someone, they want something they can use to recoup their costs with in return. And research tends to be 99.9% useless inventions, and about 0.1% world-changing insights.

Sure, the results can be it: but generalized research really only pays off in the long, long term. Even then, it's not always the people who do the inventing that reap the rewards. After all, who made more money, Albert Einstein, or the CEO of a nuclear power plant? It's the CEO, hands down: and Einstein is one of the most famous and successful scientists of all time.
--
AC

Re:Progressive management at tech companies

[John Miles]

Either the parent has no clue what he is talking about (Texas Instruments) ... so let's give credit when credit is due, and stop these random bashings that just make you look like a clueless fool.

I apologize; my information was indeed correct at one time, but it is currently twelve years out of date. (See page 7, as well as footnote n25 referencing Texas Instruments's $250 Million-A-Year Profit Making Center, The American Lawyer, March 1992.)

I do not have current knowledge of TI's relative earnings from its law department(s) versus sales of tangible products, nor do I have time at the moment to dig it up, so at the risk of looking like a "clueless fool" I'll admit my statement was (potentially) out of date.

Pffftt...

[deadgoon42]

Everyone knows that aliens invented the IC.

Re:Pffftt...

[MinutiaeMan]

No no no, it was stolen from the guts of a crashed timeship that came from the 29th century!

I met him briefly once.. Long ago when..

[the_rajah]

I worked in the TI Corporate Research Lab.. A very nice quiet gentleman. Someone you'd like.

R.I.P. Jack Kilby.

*** MOD PARENT UP ***

[biz0r]

MOD PARENT UP

I would if I had any mod points. I believe you are correct, sir (or maam).

To put it in my words:

People need to learn how to interact...the computer (and IC's in general because they are required for computers) allow us to communicate more freely and in ways that were not possible in the past. Now, many humans misuse this capability, and thus starve other sections of their life (ex: social). However, you cannot blame computers or IC's or anything else except for the person who chose to do or act in the manner they did. It isn't the hammer that gets blamed when you miss the nail and crush your hand...why blame the 'hammer' in this case then?

Right, you shouldn't.

J.K. didnt quite do this...

[Ancient_Hacker]

JK's invention was more like what's known as a "hybrid" Ic, with little parts hooked together with very fine wires. It was Noyce at Fairchild that invented what is the "IC"-- a planar silicon device, with the components etched and diffused onto the surface. No discrete wires, no discrete components. See JK's patent 3,138,743 for details.

Re:J.K. didnt quite do this...

[jacquesm]

hey there from another ancient hacker!

I believe it was called a thin-film integrated circuit, and it definitely qualifies as the first step in integration, it just did not push it all the way through, to put multiple components on a single die. There had been some thermally coupled transistors on a single die before that time but there were no interconnects between them, so they did not qualify as a circuit.

Intergrated Circuits have many components in a single carrier and as such Kilby's work definitely qualifies.

You're absolutely right though in that Noyce's device was much closer to what we consider to be a 'chip' nowadays, especially since he used silicon, instead of noisy Germanium.

Probably our current crop of smd's would look remarkably familiar along side one of those old thin film circuits.

It's splitting hairs though :) But then again what else do ancient hackers do but code and split hairs on slash.

Re:J.K. didnt quite do this...

[salmi]

To split the hairs even more -- Noyce figured out how to connect the components by with metal traces on silicon. Kilby figured out how to combine resistors, capacitors and transistors on a single monolithic, and made some reference in his patent to printing the interconnections, although he didn't actually do it in his prototype.

Jack's Biography http://www.ti.com/corp/docs/kilbyctr/jackstclair.s html

Re:J.K. didnt quite do this...

[Bender_]

I believe it was called a thin-film integrated circuit,

Uh, no. Thin film circuits are an entirely different thing.

Jack Kilby's notebook

[rotenberry]

I heard Jack Kilby speak at an MAA meeting a couple of years ago, and I was astonished to learn that all his IC patents (and, consequently, his Nobel Prize) were based on his notarized notebook entries and not on publications (those came later).

In the last ten years as a software developer I have had only one employer require me to keep a bound notebook of my work, while the others did not. I kept a notebook anyway, but I had to pay for it myself.

Re:Jack Kilby's notebook

[jackstack]

I was astonished to learn that all his IC patents (and, consequently, his Nobel Prize) were based on his notarized notebook entries and not on publications (those came later).

You shouldn't be astonished. This is the way it is done. If it is published, it's in the public domain and cannot be patented. Notebooks (paper and pen/pencil) is the way ideas have always been recorded for IP documentation (at least for the "hardware" innovation that I'm familiar with, like nanotech) and will probably continue to be for a long time.

If you are working for a company, publications are for teaching everyone else how to do it once you have the patent, or if you think it'll go nowhere (like IBM thought about Relational databases, till Oracle picked it up)

Rest in peace

[Anonymous Coward]

rest in peace and thanks for the great invention, because without microchips:
UNIVAC XIV version 3 (equivalent to Pentium 4)
307,200 video switches for each pixel (equiv. ATI Radeon)
A stripped down version of UNIX or DOS - possibly "UNIX-VAC"? (equiv. Windows XP)
Black-and-white TV (TV Tuner Card/Monitor)
Primitive videotape recorder with 200 hours of tape (200GB Disk for TV recording)
Photo Lab Darkroom (Photoshop)
A USPS-registered mailbox (E-mail)
Lots of other things to make it cost closer to $1 Billion, would be today's Media Center PC!!!

IC

[mediacrat]

"IC" what you did there!

thank you

[earlums25]

i've read a couple of posts saying if kilby didn't invent the IC then someone else would have. maybe, however, he gets the credit (like newton and calculus without a formal proof). thank you jack kilby and i hope his family is doing well. you gave us a new way to view the world and if history is fair, you will be part of the academic and historical legacy for many, probally hundreds of years to come

LESS human contact? Well, what about Slashdot?

[cbreaker]

I'll just ignore the odd comments about living by the schedule of the machine thing, and comment on the less human contact thing.

It's not true!

While it may be true that *some* people have less face-to-face contact, I dare say it's not significantly less then anytime in the past.

I'd say we have a lot more communication then ever before.

Every day I communicate with people all across the globe; via Slashdot and other forums. I have conversations with people I would have never been able to meet, ever, even if you lived 10 miles away. The Internet has allowed me to meet so many people that I stay in contact with regularly but I have never met face to face or even spoken to on the phone. And some of those casual friendships feel no less real the casual friendships I have offline.

I'm not really into the whole blogging thing, but it's another great way that people are getting to know each other; communicating with each other.

So, considering all this, I'm not sure how technology has hindered human contact.

And about free time, well. Looking back at the last two centuries, I'd say my work schedule is pretty darned good compared to the amount of work the average middle class person has had to work in the past. Ohh, boo. I might have to go in at night and fix a server. Well, I'm not getting up at dawn to milk cows or bake bread until dusk, so I think it's a good trade-off.

And to the last point, I don't think this man invisioned anything when he created the IC. He probably thought it would greatly help reduce the cost of the circuit and help him keep his job.

No, Bob Noyce invented the IC

[Laaserboy]

Jack Kilby is said to have invented the integrated circuit. This is not entirely correct for three reasons.

1) Jack Kilby simply jumpered wires around a semiconductor. At the same time and before at Fairchild, Bob Noyce produced a planar process that we use today. Subsequently, TI used Noyce's process, not Kilby's.

2) A lawyer at TI argued for years that Jack Kilby invented the IC. Fairchild was awarded the first patent for the IC, but eventually gave up. Since the lawyer won the case despite all of the evidence against Kilby, the Nobel committee should have included the lawyer in the Nobel prize. He is partly responsible for it.

3) If Intel (the eventual home of Noyce) were to claim that Noyce invented the IC, it would have given an expensive gift to Fairchild. Fairchild at one point could have sued Intel for all Noyce walked out with. It would create a mess. TI claimed all along that Kilby invented the IC. Corporate publicity won the day.

A Nobel Prize for Engineering

[Anonymous Coward]

As an electrical engineer, I was especially pleased he won the Nobel for what was essential an engineering feat, not a purely scientific one.

Re:"American Giants" / "homegrown talent"

[nomadic]

Yes we do, but all the PHBs and golf-playing beancounters who are in charge of everything right now don't seem to give a rat's ass about that. Even if they did, the last thing they want to do is give credit where credit is due, but rather to steal someone else's thunder and claim it for their own benefit while squashing the originator of the ideas.

Don't forget some of the people who actually have the talent throwing it away in exchange for money themselves? Greed works at all levels. Look at how many people with a natural aptitude for technology dropped out of college during the dot com boom to become code monkeys. Look at how many people respond to the frequent "Do I really need a college degree" Ask Slashdots with "no, I didn't go to college and I make a lot of money", as if that's the sole reason for actually going to college.

Sad passing of a pillar of computing

[Syntroxis]

I consider myself very fortunate to have been able to meet him back in the early 70's through my girlfriends father who worked with him at TI. Even sadder though it how TI laid them both off as they approached retirement. Not sure how Mr Kirby handled it, but it devestated my gf's father. He never recovered from giving most of his professional carreer to TI and getting laid off.

Re:Sad passing of a pillar of computing

[Specter]

"...laid them both off as they approached retirement"

This is _so_ not true. Jack had an office in the _KILBY BUILDING_ on TI's North Campus in Dallas. I have it on good authority that on the days when Jack was in the office young engineers were encouraged to just walk on in.

Sorry about your FIL, but Jack was coming into TI on a regular basis until fairly recently.

Yes. Geoffrey W.A. Dummer in 1952.

[Anonymous Coward]

The integrated circuit was first conceived by a radar scientist, Geoffrey W.A. Dummer (born 1909), working for the Royal Radar Establishment of the British Ministry of Defence, and published in Washington DC on May 7, 1952. Dummer unsuccessfully attempted to build such a circuit in 1956.
Integrated_circuit

Re:Yes. Geoffrey W.A. Dummer in 1952.

[niteskunk]

Interesting guys, thanks for the info =)

Re:"American Giants" / "homegrown talent"

[Xiaran]

Ask Slashdots with "no, I didn't go to college and I make a lot of money", as if that's the sole reason for actually going to college.

Exactly. Ive had this argument with so many people in the industry. Going to university is supposed to be about more than just earning more money(its supposed to teach you how to think people). I have a friend who is doing a masters in Comp Sci right now. When people hear about it that seem to think its a waste of time, "How is that going to get him more money?" is a common utterance. He aint doing it for more money. Hes doing it because hes curious about Computer Science and wants to research and learn more. Most people respond to that idea with increduality.

Re:... god rest his soul : William Shockley ?

[Anonymous Coward]

The IC wouldn't have been possible without William Shockley since the bulk of it is transistors.

Re:not much more to say except...

[edsonmedina]

truely an american icon

human icon is more correct

Jack Kirby and Circuit Design

[NickFortune]

I think Jack Kirby's main discontent lay having designed so many of Marvel's most popular characters and then not getting to see any of the money they went on to generate. Technically it may have been work-for-hire, I'm not familiar with the details of the case, but a lot of people thought Jolly Jack got a raw deal there.

So far as I know, his experience of designing intergrated circuits was limited to those cool looking patterns that decorated most of the stuff in Reed Richards' lab. I mean they were really cooling circuits and all, but I'm not aware of any attempts to actually implement them outside of the Baxter Building...

Oh, wait a sec... The OP says Jack Kilby. Sorry, my mistake...

Re:Ever work at help desk?

[vertinox]

Increased workload? Less human contact? Bullshit.

I don't know about the human contact part but... You know there is a thriving industry of professionally trained persons that do nothing but make sure these machines work in order so that they may function properly so that others less technically inclined persons may punch in numbers and type words. Most of the people punching in numbers and typing the words have little or no idea how to make these things properly and often spend hours trying to make them work until they get angry and contact the more skilled engineer types down at the help desk.

I don't think this is Jack's fault as much as it is the number punchers who somehow got the job doing such work and maybe those who designed the interface of the typing and number punching (Excel... *cough* Word *coughs*)

And that and the countless millions of hours of productivity lost because word ate the document or excel crashes or they number puncher saved over their own file.

Of course that is more of a software and social problem than Jack's hardware area.

Still there is a great deal of improvement to be had in all areas of the computer device..

Jack Kirby ?

[wolverine1999]

I almost thought the post was about Jack Kirby...

From my Hometown

[turminalillness]

Mr. Kilby returned to our hometown of Great Bend Kansas on a few occasions to speak with the children at all the schools. Working for the Park Dept in the summers between college I helped convince the city to place "Home of Noble Prize Winner Jack Kilby" signs on the highways coming into town. You were inspiration to at least one geek in the middle of nowhere Kansas.. hats off you Jack.

HAL 9000 developed at UIUC

[peter303]

It had a high reputation in the 1960s that Arthur C. Clarke sited HAL's invention there.

Big deal for Great Bend - my hometown

[intheory]

http://www.gbtribune.com/localNews.htm

That link will probably only be good today, but the Great Bend Tribune, the newspaper from Kilby's (and my) hometown gives a little more info from a more personal perspective. Great Bend has really tried to honor this guy, and the city is proud to have been part of his accomplishments.

Also, check http://www.jackkilby.com/ for more info about him and the memorial in Great Bend.

Just thought I'd throw that in there.

Re:Big deal for Great Bend - my hometown

[kc32]

And I figured I was the only slashdotter from Great Bend.

Re:Big deal for Great Bend - my hometown

[intheory]

me too. :p It's been 4 or 5 years since I've lived there, before Kilby Square and the like.

Re:Big deal for Great Bend - my hometown

[Average]

Harldy the only ex-Great Bender here, Justin! (Tom, the viola section).

Re:Big deal for Great Bend - my hometown

[intheory]

holy smokes! the viola section! Good to hear from ya! shoot me an email - justin[at]ideate[dot]net.

Re:Was Kilby essential to the invention of the chi

[murphj]

Kilby would never have made those claims for himself. From the Washington Posts's obit :

"It's astonishing what human ingenuity and creativity can do," he said. "My part was pretty small, actually." Whenever people would mention that Kilby was responsible for the entire modern digital world, he liked to tell the story of the beaver and the rabbit sitting in the woods near Hoover Dam. "Did you build that one?" the rabbit asked. "No, but it was based on an idea of mine," the beaver replied.

I guess there's no Nobel prize in engineering

[adminispheroid]

While this guy did remarkable things, I was always puzzled why he (and his co-awardees) got the prize for physics. I just don't see where they advanced our understanding of physics. I've heard this prize compared to Bardeen et al, but those guys made some fundamental advances in condensed matter physics on their way to the transistor. Never could see anything like that in this case. Maybe the Nobel committee felt a need to recognize this achievement, and the physics prize seemed more appropriate than the other choices.

If I recall correctly, the first Nobel prize in physics was for a gas regulator for lighted buoys. (The winner was, of course, Swedish.) So I guess there is some precedent.

sad indeed

[Danzigism]

definitely sad to hear about his passing.. I work at a little historical society here in Delaware, and we come across tons of autographed letters and photos for authentication purposes. i've seen a few of Kilby's old letters of correspondence.. truly a great man, and his autograph goes for a nice shiny penny.. one of the mile marking people throughout all of humanity's history..

So long...

[fitten]

and thanks for all the silicon!

Thanks for helping develop something that is a major part of my (and many others') life both for entertainment and for employment.

ball cheese?

[crabpeople]

ewww

come on man thats fucking discusting right there.

he is right though. we have given up alot for our global commerce lifestyles. Obviously i was not alive in 1958, and i do enjoy many of the devices developed since then. You do realize that you "working from the couch, with your children" paradigm represents a very very small subset of people in the world right? Your one of the lucky few, most of us are stuck behind desks or in cubes. I at least, have 1/8th of a window to look out of which is more than some can say.

The idea he was getting at is that we are becoming much more disconnected from life and more dependant on technology. I don't think this is a good thing. What if one day all the glorious technology goes away? would you still be able to feed yourself?
i sure as hell wouldnt. and thats kind of scary.

another thing to consider was that in 1958 a single income could support a family, buy a house, 2 cars and be able to take vacations every year with the kids. very rare is it to have a single parent working these days. most families have 2 incomes, and wouldnt be able to survive on just one. All the gadgets, the toys, the useless consumer goods one buys - this is why. advertising tells us to consume more, but in order to consume more we have to work more. that is what he meant by us sustaining the very machine that will kill us. or some such thing.

So long Mr. Kilby and thanks for all the fish.

[Tuva]

You will be dearly Missed out at TI, where I caught a passing glance of you. It is out there where your legacy will live on forever. The posters and banners displaying your legacy will always be there. No one knows what will become of your office where you encouraged so many young engineers. But I can only hope that something good will become of it.

This guy was a mean SOB...

[geekoid]

... He put thousands of tube technicians out of work. Clearly he was terrorizing the American Economy.

- Guy Grumpy.
Former CEO, TubeMakers inc.

Seriously, this man changed the world. We should have a statue of him built.

Re:This guy was a mean SOB...

[kc32]

Done and done. It's here in Great Bend, Kansas.

A good man

[bpc99149]

Any person whose invention can create an entire culture of computer nerds is good in my book.

Re:Interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

Look at the timestamps you stupid fucking mods.