
President Barack Obama (R) presents a National Medal of Technology and Innovation to (L-R) Federico Faggin, Ted Hoff, and Stanley Mazor from Intel Corporation in the East Room of the White House November 17, 2010 in Washington, DC.
Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images
Why is Federico Faggin Important?:
Federico Faggin, currently CEO of Synaptics, led the design and development of the world's first microprocessor, the Intel 4004 and conceived and supervised the design of the landmark 8080, the first modern microprocessor.
In November, 1971, a company called Intel publicly introduced the world's first single chip microprocessor, the Intel 4004 (U.S. Patent #3,821,715), invented by Intel engineers Federico Faggin, Ted Hoff, and Stanley Mazor.
Federico Faggin Role on the Intel 4004:
Federico Faggin and Stanley Mazor made refinements in architecture and logic design to the Intel 4004 chip. Frederico Faggin made the silicon design for first chip. Hoff, Mazor, and Faggin all pushed the promotion of the chip by Intel.
Other Intel Chips:
Ted Hoff, Stanley Mazor, and Frederico Faggin were involved in Intel's second and third generation CPUs, the 8008 and 8080.
Federico Faggin - Biography:
Federico Faggin was born in Vicenza, Italy on December 1, 1941. He graduated from Instituto Industriale at Vicenza in 1960. He received a doctorate in physics from the University of Padua in 1965.
In 1968, Faggin immigrated to the United States to work for Fairchild in Palo Alto. At Fairchild, Faggin developed the original silicon gate technology. In 1970, he began working for Intel on the Intel 4004 microprocessor.
In 1974, Federico Faggin founded Zilog, Inc. and invented a new chip design. In 1982, Faggin co-founded Cygnet Technologies. In 1986, he founded Synaptics, Inc. and is currently the president.
Federico Faggin is a recipient of the Marconi Fellowship and IEEE W. Wallace McDowell award. In 2010 he was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.