Nicholas DeWolf (July 12, 1928 – April 16, 2006) was co-founder of

Teradyne Teradyne, Inc. is an American automatic test equipment (ATE) designer and manufacturer based in North Reading, Massachusetts. Its high-profile customers include Samsung, Qualcomm, Intel, Analog Devices, Texas Instruments and IBM. History T ...

, a

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-based manufacturer of

automatic test equipment Automatic test equipment or automated test equipment (ATE) is any apparatus that performs tests on a device, known as the device under test (DUT), equipment under test (EUT) or unit under test (UUT), using automation to quickly perform measure ...

. He founded the company in 1960 with Alex d'Arbeloff, a classmate at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

.Abraham, Chad
"Computer pioneer dies at 77: Nick DeWolf's genius illuminated, soaked Aspen"
''

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'', April 17, 2006

Early life and education

DeWolf was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

and graduated with an S.B. in EECS from

in 1948.

Career

During his eleven years as CEO of Teradyne, DeWolf is credited with designing more than 300 semiconductor and other test systems, including the J259, the world's first computer-operated integrated circuit tester. After leaving Teradyne in 1971, DeWolf moved to

Aspen Aspen is a common name for certain tree species in the Populus sect. Populus, of the ''Populus'' (poplar) genus. Species These species are called aspens: * ''Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (China, south of ''P. tremula'') * ''Populus da ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, where in 1979, he teamed with artist Travis Fulton to create Aspen's "dancing fountain". DeWolf also designed a computer system without

hard disk A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating hard disk drive platter, pla ...

s or fans; this system (the ON! computer) booted up in seconds, a much faster time than even the computers of today.

Awards

*1979:

Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International SEMI is an industry association comprising companies involved in the electronics design and manufacturing supply chain. They provide equipment, materials and services for the manufacture of semiconductors, photovoltaic panels, LED and flat pan ...

SEMI Award for North America. *2001: Telluride Tech Festival Award of Technology, Boulder, CO. *2005: inducted into the Aspen Hall of Fame with wife Maggie DeWolf.

Photography

DeWolf was also a keen and prolific photographer. His son-in-law and archivist, Steve Lundeen, is scanning DeWolf's complete archive and making it available on

Flickr Flickr ( ) is an image hosting service, image and Online video platform, video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was previously a co ...

Death

DeWolf died in Aspen, Colorado at the age of 77.

Quotes

* "What the customer demands is last year's model, cheaper. To find out what the customer needs you have to understand what the customer is doing as well as he understands it. Then you build what he needs and you educate him to the fact that he needs it." * "To select a component, size a product, design a system or plan a new company, first test the extremes and then have the courage to resist what is popular and the wisdom to choose what is best".

References

External links

The photographic archive of Nick DeWolf
on Flickr *

biography at The Chip History Center *

* ttp://nickdewolf.typepad.com/blog/ Nick DeWolf A/V Artifacts {{DEFAULTSORT:Dewolf, Nick 1928 births 2006 deaths Computer hardware engineers American company founders Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni