Federico Faggin

Federico Faggin ( born December 1, 1941 in Vicenza, Italy ) is an Italian microchip expert and entrepreneur.

Life and career

At the University of Padua, he received his doctorate in physics in 1965. In 1967, he worked for SGS Fairchild in Italy. He emigrated in 1968 from the United States, to work at Fairchild Semiconductor. In 1970 he moved to Intel.

In January 1971 he almost single-handedly developed the first CPU for Intel, the Intel 4004, on the The he left his signature. In October 1974, he left Intel and started his own company Zilog, where he Zilog Z80 CPU created until May 1976, a CPU compatible with the Intel 8080, however, was more powerful and cheaper.

In 1982 he was co-founder and president of Cygnet Technologies. He was co-founder in 1986 and president of the company Synaptics Inc. In 1997, he received the prestigious Kyoto Prize. Since 2002 he is back at Zilog active in the Supervisory Board.

In 2006 he has been in the category " Lifetime Achievement" awarded the European Inventor Award. In 2010 he received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation from the hand of U.S. President Barack Obama. In 1994 he received the W. Wallace McDowell Award.