Wednesday, November 24, 2010

A Beaming Inventor

We recently reported on the winners of the National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. In the meantime Mostly Color Channel's correspondent in D.C. sent us the photographs from the ceremony, which took place Monday last week.

The ceremony involves all the pomp and circumstance required for such an important State event:

Federico Faggin and Barak Obama

When the POTUS shakes your hand, you realize he is not just a great leader but also a tall man:

Federico Faggin and Barak Obama

The current President is perfectly comfortable performing the ceremony ad lib, without reading from a teleprompter. Here he is being handed over the medal:

Federico Faggin and Barak Obama

It is harder to say who is happier for this moment, Mr. Obama or Dr. Faggin?

Federico Faggin and Barak Obama

But certainly here FF is beaming:

Federico Faggin and Barak Obama

You can learn more about the invention of the microprocessor from this IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine article: The Making of the First Microprocessor, 10.1109/MSSC.2008.930938. For a trove of historical details around the invention of the microprocessor you may also want to visit the 4004 Web site.

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