L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2019 www.italoamericano.org 4 Federico Faggin – The man behind the genius "There need no longer be a duality between mind and matter. With consciousness, you can reach reality from the inside." Federico Faggin M uch has been written about Dr. Federico Faggin, Italian physicist, inventor, and entrepreneur, known for design- ing the first commercial micro- processor. But when L'Italo- Americano had the opportunity to interview him, the focus quickly became the man behind the genius. In this interview, exclusively granted to L'Italo-Americano, we asked: who is Federico Faggin, the "regular guy?" What are his thoughts about his Italian her- itage and culture? How did his Italianness influence his life's work? In response to those ques- tions, our conversation revealed glimpses of this creative and gift- ed individual. Federico Faggin was born in Vicenza, Italy, in 1941. He describes growing up in an intel- lectual environment by saying, "My father was a teacher of his- tory and philosophy at the liceo classico, a very traditional high school in Italy, but he was also a libero docente, which is like a Ph.D. He taught at the University of Padua and was a writer of about 40 books. My mother was an ele- mentary school teacher." There were signs of Federi- co's keen interest in technology beginning at an early age. This curiosity seemed to begin with building model planes. "Air- planes really fascinated me. By the time I was 11, I saw a model airplane fly and that changed my life. It was like I fell in love and I just had to build one myself." Faggin attended the Istituto Tecnico Industriale Statale (I.T.I.S.), a technical high school in Vicenza, with the intention of studying aeronautical engineer- ing. As it happens, the school dropped that curriculum. It was then that he began his study of radio technology. And the rest, as they say, is history. In the early 1960s, Faggin began working at the Olivetti Electronics Laboratory where he co-designed and built an experi- mental transistorized electronic computer. While studying physics at the University of Padua in 1965, he received his laurea in physics, graduating summa cum laude. In 1967, he began work at SGS-Fairchild, now STMicro- electronics, in Italy. There he developed their first metal-oxide- semiconductor (MOS) technolo- gy, and their first two commer- cial MOS integrated circuits (ICs). In 1968, Faggin was sent to Silicon Valley in California to work at Fairchild Semiconductor where he was in charge of devel- oping Fairchild's self-aligned gate MOS process technology with silicon gates, the basis of all modern CMOS integrated cir- cuits. Joining Intel in 1970, Faggin led the design of the world's first commercial microprocessor, the Intel 4004. This project also required the implementation of a new method for random logic chip design using silicon gate technology. Faggin, along with Masatoshi Shima, designed and developed all four ICs in Intel's groundbreaking MCS-4 micro- processor family. Faggin left Intel at the end of 1974 to found Zilog Inc., with Ralph Ungermann, and was the company's president and CEO until 1980. Zilog was his first company, dedicated to the emer- gent microprocessor and micro- controller market. The Zilog Z80 microprocessor (1976), and the Z8 microcontroller (1978), are still in production. In 1982 he founded and directed Cygnet Technologies Inc., and in 1984 introduced a pioneering personal communication product for voice, data, and electronic mail. In 1986 Faggin co-founded and directed Synaptics Inc., the company that developed artificial neural network chips to perform pattern recognition. Today, Synaptics is the leader in human interface solutions, having pio- neered the Touchpad (1994), and the Touchscreen (1999), that rev- olutionized the way we interface with mobile devices. He later became president and CEO of Foveon Inc., a company making image sensors and digital cameras for mobile devices, from 2003 until the company was acquired in 2008. Faggin is currently president of the Federico and Elvia Faggin Foundation, a non-profit organi- zation dedicated to the scientific study of consciousness, a long- standing interest that now has become a full-time activity. Founded in 2011, the Foundation supports various research pro- grams at US universities and research institutes to advance the understanding of consciousness through theoretical and experi- mental research. Undoubtedly, such a learned and accomplished person should be, and has been, the recipient of many prizes and awards. Among them are the Kyoto Prize (1997), shared with Hoff, Mazor, and Shima, and the 2009 National Medal of Technology and Inno- vation from President Barack Obama, with Hoff and Mazor. In addition, he has received the Mar- coni Prize (1988), and the Life- time Achievement Award from the European Patent Organization (2006). In 1996, Faggin was inducted in the National Inven- tor's Hall of Fame for the co- invention of the microprocessor and has received many honorary degrees in Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, including a Ph.D. in Electronic Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Armenia, and a Ph.D. in Sci- ence from Chapman University. L'Italo-Americano asked Fag- gin if there was one prize in par- ticular that touched his heart. "Yes, there was an award called the Masi Prize. Masi is a winemaker in the Veneto region of Italy where I was born. They make Amarone wine, one of the top Italian wines in the world. Fondazione Masi set up a yearly prize that it gives to three people from the Veneto region who have distinguished themselves in the world. I received the Premio Masi in 1997." According to the Masi Foun- dation website, the awards began in 1981 with the Masi Civiltà Veneta Prize, given to individuals who originated from the Venetian territories and who had distin- guished themselves in the fields of literature, art, journalism, sci- ence, the performing arts,and business. The actual prize itself is very special: a barrel of Masi Amarone, one of the most emblematic products of the Venetian lands. Of this honor, Federico Faggin points out the intricacies on an enlarged blueprint of the Intel 4004, which he designed and became the world's first microprocessor in 1971. Photo: Intel Free Press/Flickr CATHERINE ACCARDI Continued to page 6 NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS

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