Daniel W. Dobberpuhl
Daniel William Dobberpuhl | |
|---|---|
| Born | Daniel William Dobberpuhl 25 March 1945 Streator, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | 26 October 2019 (aged 74) Pacific Grove, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Electrical engineer |
| Years active | 1967–2019 |
| Known for | Microprocessor design; DEC Alpha processor family; StrongARM architecture; PWRficient processors |
Daniel "Dan" William Dobberpuhl (March 25, 1945 – October 26, 2019) was a prominent American electrical engineer who led several microprocessor design initiatives.
Background
Born in Streator, Illinois in 1945, Dobberpuhl completed his Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1967. He began his career with the United States Department of Defense before moving to the GE Integrated Circuits Laboratory in Syracuse, New York, where he specialized in application-specific integrated circuits.
DEC
In 1976, Dobberpuhl joined Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) as a semiconductor engineer and took charge of microprocessor projects such as the DEC T-11 and MicroVAX. He rose to the position of senior corporate consulting engineer, one of the highest technical appointments at DEC. During this period, he spearheaded the development of the first three generations of the influential DEC Alpha processor family. In 1985, he authored The Design and Analysis of VLSI Circuits, a foundational textbook in microprocessor architecture.
Dobberpuhl established and managed DEC’s Palo Alto Design Center in 1993, where the StrongARM processor architecture was created.
SiByte
Following the transfer of StrongARM technology to Intel, Dobberpuhl co-founded SiByte in 1998. As president, he led the design of the SB1250, a 64-bit MIPS system on a chip optimized for high-performance networking applications. That same year, EE Times named him among the "40 forces to shape the future of the Semiconductor Industry." SiByte attracted venture capital and strategic investments from firms such as ATI Technologies, Cisco Systems, and Juniper Networks, culminating in a $40 million funding round by May 2000. After launching the SB1250 in August, SiByte was acquired by Broadcom in November 2000 for stock valued at over $2 billion. Dobberpuhl remained with Broadcom until 2003 as vice president and general manager of its broadband processor division.
In recognition of his groundbreaking work on high-speed, low-power microprocessors, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers honored him with the IEEE Donald O. Pederson Award in Solid-State Circuits in 2003.
P.A. Semi
Dobberpuhl founded P.A. Semi in 2003, a fabless semiconductor company focused on developing the PWRficient series of Power ISA processors. His contributions to innovative high-performance and energy-efficient microprocessor designs earned him election to the National Academy of Engineering in 2006. In 2008, Apple Inc. acquired P.A. Semi for an estimated $278 million.
He was also recognized with the University of Illinois Distinguished Alumni Award in 2003 and later received the College of Engineering Alumni Honor Award in 2009.
Agnilux
Near the end of 2009, Dobberpuhl retired from Apple to join Agnilux, a startup which was subsequently acquired by Google in April 2010.
Holding 15 patents throughout his career, he also served as Chairman of the Board for embedded machine vision firm Movidius.
Dobberpuhl died on October 26, 2019, in Pacific Grove, California.