It's a little-known fact that Jack Kilby, the inventor of the microchip, was also a hearing-aid pioneer. The Texas Instruments engineer and Nobel Prize winner's death yesterday at the age of 81 has spurred a slew of stories about the invention of the integrated circuit and the dawn of the computer age. But Kilby's first job out of college in the 1950s was with the Centralab Division of Globe-Union Corporation in Wisconsin, where as a young engineer interested in "miniaturization," he helped develop what the Smithsonian Institution calls one of "the first consumer products of the electronic age -- the transistor-based hearing aid." Later, he won fame and fortune with his work on the first electronic calculators, on the first thermal printers, and then for his breakthrough proving it was possible to integrate a large number of transistors on a single piece of silicon to create the first semiconductor chips. Kilby shared the honor of "father of the chip" with Robert Noyce of Intel Corporation, who most likely would have shared the Nobel Prize with Kilby had he lived long enough. After they developed the first memory chips, Intel and Texas Instruments raced to develop and commercialize the first microprocessors. Intel took the lead in microprocessors powering personal computers, while TI took the lead in developing the digital signal processors (DSPs) used in many communications devices, including today's digital hearing aids. So in addition to his early work miniaturizing the amplifiers used in the first generation of analog electronic hearing aids, it's fair to say Jack Kilby also helped make possible today's amazing digital hearing aids. May he rest in peace.
Posted by David at 02:49 PM on Jun 22, 2005 in INDUSTRY NEWS, PEOPLE, TECHNOLOGY
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