Just as the task of building the first integrated circuit required a certain amount of imaginative and thoughtful brain power, this tribute to the 40th anniversary of the IC, we knew, could not be created in a vacuum. Our editorial advisory board, pictured here, provided us with insights and inspirations for this project that were invaluable. We thank them for their efforts.

Basant R. Chawla is director of enterprise physical architecture at Lucent Technologies, where he is responsible for providing direction and setting standards for the various components of information technology. Since joining Bell Labs in 1967, Chawla has held positions in CAD research and development, including head of the computer-aided engineering and design department. He holds a BE degree from the University of Bombay, India, an MS degree from Princeton University and a PhD degree from the University of Kansas, all in electrical engineering.

William J. Spencer is chairman of the Sematech industry consortium, which he joined in 1990 as president and chief executive officer. Before that, he managed the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (Parc). Spencer's career has included stints at Bell Laboratories and at Sandia National Laboratories, where he served as director of systems development and director of miroelectronics. He holds MS and PhD degrees from Kansas State University and an AB degree from William Jewell College in Missouri.

George H. Heilmeier is chairman emeritus of Bellcore, where he once served as chairman and chief executive officer. Earlier, Heilmeier was director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), where he initiated major efforts in stealth aircraft, space-based lasers and reconnaissance systems, infrared technology and artificial intelligence. Earlier, at RCA Laboratories, Heilmeier's work in electro-optic effects in liquid crystals led to the first LCDs. Heilmeier holds a BSEE degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and MA, MSE and PhD degrees from Princeton University.

C. Mark Melliar-Smith, president and chief executive officer of Sematech, spent 25 years at AT&T in various positions, culminating as executive director of the Integrated Circuits Division at AT&T Bell Laboratories and as chief technical officer for Lucent Microelectronics. Melliar-Smith managed diverse research and development groups in lightwave communications systems and IC manufacturing lines. He holds BS and PhD degrees in chemistry from Southampton University, England, and an MBA degree from Rockhurst College, Kansas City, Mo.

Aart J. de Geus, chairman and chief executive officer of Synopsys Inc., is considered one of the world's leading experts in electronic design automation. Since founding Synopsys more than 10 years ago, de Geus has led the company to international EDA market prominence in synthesis technology. He holds an MSEE degree from the Swiss Federal Polytechnical Institute and a PhD degree in electrical engineering from Southern Methodist University.

Bruce A. Beers is director of ASIC products at IBM Microelectronics, where he has led efforts in ASIC technology that include introduction of the first copper-based ASIC. He chairs the ASIC General Managers' Council of the Silicon Integration Initiative, an industry group that works on standards for reusable logic. Beers holds a BA degree in physics from Middlebury College in Vermont.

John L. Hennessy is dean of the school of engineering at Stanford University, where in 1981 he initiated the MIPS project, which gave rise to one of the first three experimental RISC architectures. Hennessy played a key role in transferring this technology to industry, co-founding MIPS Computer Systems, now part of Silicon Graphics. Hennessy holds a PhD degree from the State University at Stony Brook, N.Y.

Dave Patterson has taught computer architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, since 1977, and led the design and implementation of RISC 1, the foundation of the Sparc architecture. Patterson's current research interests are in large-scale computing using networks for workstations and in building novel microprocessors using in-telligent DRAM. He is a Fellow of the Association of Computer Machinery .

David R. Ditzel is president and CEO of Transmeta Corp., a Silicon Valley CPU startup. Ditzel was chief scientist for the Sparc Technology Business and director of Sparc Laboratories at Sun Microsystems Inc. He also was an architect of the Crisp processor at AT&T Bell Labs. He is co-author of The Case for the Reduced Instruction Set Computer.

Keith R. Lobo is president, CEO and a director at Quickturn Design Systems Inc. Lobo's industry experience includes engineering and management responsibilities at Fairchild, LSI Logic and Chips & Technologies, where he was the chief operating officer. He holds a master's degree in electrical engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology and an MBA degree in finance.

Thomas P. Redfern is a National Semiconductor Corp. Fellow and a leading authority in linear-IC technologies. Redfern pioneered the use of CMOS to build A/D converters and analog functions at National and at prior workplaces, including American Microsystems, Linear Technology and Garrett Microcircuits. He holds BSEE and MSEE degrees from Leland Stanford Junior University.

As vice president of strategic technology at VLSI Technology Inc., Bob Payne reports to the president in a staff role and evangelizes the company's technology to customers and the semiconductor industry at large. Earlier at VLSI, Payne was chief technical officer for its ASIC Core Technology Group. He holds BEE and MSEE degrees from the University of Minnesota and an MBA degree from the College of St. Thomas, in St. Paul.

Ellen J. Yoffa is senior manager of computer architecture and design automation at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, where she leads the formulation and implementation of EDA research. Yoffa is on the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society Board of Governors and the editorial advisory board of IEEE Spectrum. She holds BS and PhD degrees in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

While our process for coming up with this "Top 40" list was admittedly non-scientific, we took the endeavor seriously. We started by convening a handful of our senior editors to draft a strawman list. After considerable debate, we arrived at a list that we shared with a wider group of our top field editors, who suggested numerous additions and deletions. We revised the list and sent it out to an industry advisory board of 13 influential managers and thinkers whose expertise and perspective span a variety of disciplines.

Our advisers didn't hesitate to tell us what they thought we had right, where they thought we had strayed and why. As you might imagine, few of the nominated forces went unchallenged. In a final round of meetings, our senior editors evaluated the contenders one more time and defined the list you will find in this issue. We at EE Times take ultimate responsibility for its contents.

We thank all who participated in the process for their contributions in compiling our compendium of the top 40 forces shaping the semiconductor industry. We hope you find it engages your imagination and is a touchstone for your own beliefs.

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