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A Recent History of Silicon Valley Technologies and Companies
October 8 @ 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Professor John Hennessy, past President of Stanford University (2000-2016) and Chairman of Alphabet Inc. will be in conversation with Alan J Weissberger of the IEEE Technology blog. This talk will be about the history of technologies and companies in Silicon Valley since the late 1970s.
Later in the program they will be joined on stage by IEEE past President (https://iwrc.ieeeusa.org/blog/portfolio-items/thomas-coughlin/) to discuss recent IEEE accomplishments, current focus areas and suggestions on how to strengthen the world’s largest technology non-profit organization.
Our conversation will cover the evolution of RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) and its applications in smart phones, tablets and other devices. We will discuss the evolution of GPUs, the computational demands of machine learning, and the emergence of domain-specific architectures (DSAs).
We will also discuss the founding of Atheros Communications (acquired by Qualcomm in 2011) and its development of chip sets for WiFi, Bluetooth and other OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing) technologies. That will lead us into a brief discussion of WiFi – one of the most successful IEEE standards (802.11) – and Bluetooth, along with the associated semiconductor and equipment companies that developed those ubiquitous technologies.
Finally, we will turn to Google’s history, particularly its research activities. As a Google Board member for more than two decades, Prof. Hennessy has played a role in helping develop Google's strategic direction. With the current pervasiveness of AI, what does that hold for the future of science, technology and higher education?
This will be both an in person event at SCU and also an online virtual event with zoom. Pre registration is required for both.
Parking at SCU Note: Parking is free for only 2 hours
Link: (https://www.scu.edu/parking-and-transportation-services/parking-services/visitor-parking/)
Speaker(s): John, Alan, Tom
Agenda:
5:00 – 5:25 pm Registration and Networking
5:25 – 5:30 pm Intro by Tom Coughlin about the IEEE
5:30 – 6:15 pm Conversation with John Hennessy
6:15 – 6:55 pm Audience Q & A
6:55 – 7:00 pm Closing Remarks
Bldg: Locatelli Student Activity Center, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, California, United States, 95053, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/496561