A Discussion with Federico Faggin
Wednesday, June 12, at 17:00
The Prague Center for Transatlantic Relations organized a discussion with Federico Faggin, inventor of the first commercial microprocessor and one of the greatest luminaries of high technology alive today: From the Microprocessor Through AI to the Human Consciousness. It was held on Wednesday, June 12, at 17:00 at CEVRO, Jungmannova 17, Prague 1.
Roberto Brazzale will introduce Federico Faggin, and Mojmír Hampl moderated the discussion.
Throughout his career, Faggin has given life to several state-of-the-art products and technologies directly or through the companies he founded and led. At 19, he co-designed and built an experimental transistorized electronic computer at Olivetti, Italy. While working for Fairchild Semiconductors, he developed the MOS Silicon Gate Technology (SGT) and designed the Fairchild 3708, the world’s first commercial IC (integrated circuit) with SGT (1968).
He joined Intel in 1970, where he designed the world’s first microprocessor, the Intel 4004 (1971), and led the development of all early Intel microprocessors. At the end of 1974, Faggin started and directed his first company, Zilog, Inc., which was entirely dedicated to the emergent microprocessor and microcontroller market. The Zilog Z80 microprocessor (1976) and the Z8 microcontroller (1978) were still in volume production in 2020.
Faggin founded and directed Cygnet Technologies, Inc. (1982), which, two years later, introduced a pioneering personal communication product for voice, data, and electronic mail. He then founded and directed Synaptics, Inc. (1986), which initially developed experimental analog chips for the emulation of artificial neural network and then pioneered the Touchpad (1994) and the Touchscreen (1999), solutions that have revolutionized the way we interface with mobile devices. Today, Synaptics is the world leader in human interface solutions. He was chairman of Synaptics (1999-2009)and CEO of Foveon, Inc., the developer of advanced image sensors and digital cameras for mobile devices(2003- 2008).
Faggin is president of Federico and Elvia Faggin Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the scientific study of consciousness. This interest has become his passionate full-time activity.
In his bestseller autobiography Silicon: From the Invention of the Microprocessor to the New Science of Consciousness (2021), Federico Faggin chronicles his “four lives”: his formative years in war-torn Northern Italy, his pioneering work in American microelectronics, his successful career as a high-tech entrepreneur, and his more recent explorations into the mysteries of consciousness. In this heartfelt memoir, Faggin paints vivid anecdotes, steps readers through society-changing technological breakthroughs, and shares personal insights as each of his lives propels the next, describes Amazon.com.
Irreducible: Consciousness, Life, Computers, and Human Nature will be published at the end of May.
