I’ve spent 45 years (!) working on microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSP) and computer hardware and software…
That makes me a dinosaur (and, yes, an old fart). In fact I’ve done pretty much anything to be done on computers, from small programs to run in embedded microprocessors to social networks dispatched on the Cloud.
I also invented and developed technologies on sound and music (that was fun !) and home automation systems (hardware + software).
I was lucky enough in my long career to work in the Silicon Valley with people like Howard Sack, Walt Hollingsworth (who both participated in the creation of most powerful supercomputers in the world). I worked with them and other great microprocessor architects on the first generation of RISC and CISC 32-bit microprocessors, along with people like Bob Proebsting (dynamic RAM pioneer). I also later worked with amazing researchers/engineers at Bell Labs while I was head of Engineering at AT&T European Development Center.
In the late 20th century, I invented the Madplayer (more info here) with the help of top-notch engineers and musicians. This gave me the opportunity to meet yet some other geniuses like Andy Rubin (inventor of Android), who offered me a position which was way over my capacities (and which I therefore declined) at Google, and Dave Smith who basically invented modern music synthesizers, and became a friend.
In 2018, I am retiring from the computer business (nothing in that field interests me anymore…) and now focus on having fun with my family and friends.
“Having fun” seems lazy and restful, but it’s not. I have a lot to do to learn music composition, and I also took the opportunity of having more “free time” to get a closer look at the quantum physics mysteries (see more here).
I now live in the South of France, where I enjoy the sun and the food (and some more or less alcoholic beverages), while listening to some good music (any genre) and smoking a good cigar.
P.S.
You might be surprised to see in my bio (on the left) words like “scientist” and “inventor”, which are pompous words for an average brain like mine. But I did file several dozen patents on various uninteresting topics, and I do consider myself as being a logical person (you must be one when you’ve been working with boolean algebras for 45 years…), full of curiosity and open to new ideas, which to me characterizes scientific minds.