Amos Wilnai
Amos Wilnai (Hebrew: עמוס וילנאי) was born in 1939 and is an Israeli-American electrical engineer, hi-tech executive, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He taught at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology (1973), and was part of the founding team and led chip design at both Intel Israel[1] (1974) and National Semiconductor Israel (1978).[2]
In 1982 he founded Clarity Ltd.[3] of Herzliya, Israel, and in 1997 founded MMC Networks of Sunnyvale, California.[4][5]
Career[edit]
Wilnai holds a B.Sc. degree in electrical Engineering from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology (1964), and an M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (1966).[6]
In 1970 he joined Monolithic Memories Inc. (MMI) of Sunnyvale, California where he designed and introduced a new MOS product line.[7][8]
In July 1967 Wilnai joined the R&D division of Signetics Corp. an early semiconductor company (then a Corning Glass’ subsidiary), where he studied bipolar and MOS processes and designed for Signetics’ a new MOS-based product line.[9]
In July 1974 Wilnai joined Intel’s Israeli Design Center in Haifa at its inception.[10]
In 1978 he moved to National Semiconductor to establish its newly formed chip design center in Herzliya.[11]
In 1982 Wilnai founded and was the CEO of Clarity Ltd. (initially named Softel) of Herzliya, Israel.[3][2]
MMC Networks[edit]
In 1992 Wilnai founded MMC Networks of Sunnyvale California and was its active Chairman and interim CEO.[11] The Company started as a bootstrap operation, received first round VC funding ($3.1M) in 1994, went public on NASDAQ in 1997,[12] and was acquired in 2000 by Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (AMCC) of San Diego, California for $4.5 Billion (a deal billed by the press as the second largest in semiconductor history).[5]
Charity[edit]
In 2006 Wilnai established with his wife Ruth the Amos and Ruth Wilnai Foundation, a non-profit charitable California organization that focuses on advancing underprivileged children and at-risk youth, and on social change.[13] Wilnai is currently President of the Amos & Ruth Wilnai Foundation.[13]
Publications[edit]
- “Stratified Media Optic Cavitiesיי, (M.S. thesis), presented at the 1965 Winter Meeting of the America Physical Society, UCLA, December 20–22, 1965.
- Open-Ended RC Line Model Predicts MOSFET IC Response, EDN/EEE, December 15, 1971.
- Logic Driving Gates Double as D-A converter switches, Electronics, August 14, 1972.
- Finding MOSFET Threshold with One Measurement, Electronics, September 11, 1972.
- Eliminating Clock Waveform Imperfections in MOS Dynamic Circuits, Computer Design, September 1973
- Design Consideration for Scanned Photodiode Arrays, Symposium on Microwaves, Antennas and Electron Devices, Tel Aviv, April 2–3, 1974 (with Prof. Yitzhak Kidron)
References[edit]
- ^ Autler, Gerald H. (2000). Global Networks in High Technology: The Silicon Valley-Israel Connection. University of California, Berkeley.
- ^ a b The Israel Economist. Kollek. 1985.
- ^ a b Electronics. Vol. 58. McGraw-Hill. 1985. p. 52.
- ^ "HOW TO MAKE $400,000,000 IN JUST ONE MINUTE. May 27, 1996". money.cnn.com. Retrieved 2023-03-27.
- ^ a b "Israeli founder Amos Wilnai breaks record with $530m exit from MMC". TheMarker. Retrieved 2023-03-29.
- ^ "About". www.silicomventures.com. Retrieved 2023-03-28.
- ^ "Electronics - World Radio History" (PDF).
- ^ Circuits for electronics engineers. Samuel Weber. New York: McGraw-Hill. 1977. p. 108. ISBN 0-07-019157-3. OCLC 2695050.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link) - ^ EDN. Rogers Publishing Company. 1971.
- ^ גרדמן, שלמה (2020-07-01). "רק בת 46 ויש לה אלפי צאצאים – יום הולדת לאינטל ישראל!". Chiportal (in Hebrew). Retrieved 2023-03-28.
- ^ a b "Amos Wilnai owns $520 mln worth of shares following MMC Networks-AMCC merger - Globes". en.globes.co.il. 2000-09-04. Retrieved 2023-03-28.
- ^ Solomon, Shoshanna. "Turning 71, Israel can look with pride at the tech firms it has generated". www.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 2023-03-29.
- ^ a b Petropoulos, Connie. "Amos and Ruth Wilnai Foundation". Inside Philanthropy. Retrieved 2023-03-27.