Last month, I had the high honor and genuine pleasure to serve as the moderator of an online panel discussion held by the Intel Alumni Network. Held on January 11 and recorded for posterity – see the link below — the event was accurately titled “The Intel 386 Processor – A watershed moment in computing.”

As you’ll see, the panel provided fascinating behind-the-scenes perspectives from some of the top innovators assigned to what was then considered Intel’s “Job 1” in the early 1980s, designated as such by legendary then-CEO Andy Grove who rightly staked the company’s future on pivoting away from the commoditized memory business toward the infinite promise of microprocessors.

Included on the panel were John Crawford, Claude Leglise, Joseph “Chip” Krauskopf, and current Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger (see their bios below), all of whom clearly enjoyed sharing stories, insights, lessons learned, and friendly reminiscences about the challenges, objectives & strategies, innovations, and camaraderie that characterized the development of Intel’s 386 microprocessor. (It is not an exaggeration to say Intel’s 386 played a seminal role in catalyzing the PC industry in the mid-1980s, which in turn enabled the subsequent ubiquity of microprocessors in countless consumer, business, and industrial electronics we rely on and take for granted today!)

As you dive into the panel discussion – honestly, I think any and all lovers of technology will find it interesting – you may wish to take note of several threads I’ve touched on in recent months here in CST’s blog, among them:

• The importance of educating and providing opportunities for the next generation of technological innovators. As you’ll see, the panelists and their team-mates were largely recent graduates with freshly minted degrees in computer science or other engineering disciplines. Given both a high-stakes objective and a long leash by Intel’s upper management – and blessed with brilliant minds, determination, and a scrappy, can-do attitude – the 386 team and initiative is a perfect case history for why our industry, indeed our nation, should aggressively invest in STEM education.
• Given the intensity of the effort, long hours, risk taking, and multi-person focus on a single goal – a remarkable espirit de corps emerged on the 386 project. I’ve seen and written about the value of teamwork at CST and seen it first hand during my own time at Intel. Yet another reminder how strong teams can achieve incredible results!
• Several of my recent blog posts touched on how critical it is that the United States invests in creating a fully formed semiconductor ecosystem – or, more precisely, recreating the infrastructure we’d begun to develop before the off-shoring craze of the 1990s. When you consider the vast and far-reaching impact that Intel’s 386 had on the PC market following its introduction, it’s no great leap to imagine all we might once again achieve by fostering and investing in the semiconductor-based technology innovation engine right here in America.
• Last but not least, the very exercise of looking back at the early days of the microprocessor is instructive in that it serves as a tangible reminder that we, too, are entering a whole new, but in some ways remarkably similar, technology revolution. AI, IoT, autonomous transportation, augmented and virtual reality, cloud and edge computing, smart cities, astounding technological advances in green and clean-energy, a new era in space exploration… In my heart, this time feels very much like the extraordinary frontier we were entering with the 386. Let us learn, take some of our cues, and take inspiration from those exciting, not-so-distant days.

I hope you enjoy watching and listening to this discussion as much as I enjoyed leading it!

–  Shantanu R. Gupta,
President & CEO, Cascade Systems Technology

Panel member biographies:

Claude Leglise started working at Intel straight out of graduate school in 1982 as a Product Marketing Engineer for the 8086/8088 processors. A year later in 1983, he was promoted to marketing manager for the 286 and 386 families, where he was responsible for the successful launch of the 386. As the marketing director for all microprocessors, he led the public launches of several new products, including the 386SX, 486, and i860. After spending 23 years at Intel, Claude switched careers and became a venture capitalist. He has one US patent to his name.

Chip Krauskopf joined Intel and the 386 project in 1983 with a BS in Computer Engineering and an MSEE. He was part of the team responsible for the design of the Segmentation Unit of the 386, which solved the infamous “64K limit” problem for software programmers and earned him an Intel Individual Achievement Award. He later managed the design automation for the 486 and spent 20 years at Intel before moving on to work for startups. Chip has 6 US patents to his name, 5 of which were awarded for his contributions to the 386 project, and has received 4 Intel Achievement Awards.

John Crawford started his career at Intel as a software developer for 8086 programming tools for 4 years before being assigned to the 386 project as its first employee. He served as the Architect, defining the instruction set, and led the development of the microcode and test programs. He went on to lead similar roles on the 486 and Pentium processors. John is now retired and was named an Intel Fellow and member of the National Academy of Engineering. He holds 52 patents and was awarded the ACM/IEEE Eckert-Mauchly Award.

Pat Gelsinger is the CEO of Intel, the world’s largest chipmaker. He joined the company in 1979 and has held a variety of leadership positions in engineering and product groups. Prior to his current role, Gelsinger was the CEO of cloud computing company VMWare. Under his leadership, Intel is focusing on growth and innovation in both its core business and new areas such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things. As CEO of Intel, Pat Gelsinger has made several significant contributions and launched important initiatives to drive the company’s growth and competitiveness, including:

• Investment in advanced manufacturing, including a multi-billion-dollar plan to build two new fabs in the United States and expand existing facilities.
• Focus on AI and data-centric innovation, including the acquisition of Habana Labs, a leading AI chipmaker.
• Partnership with other tech companies to accelerate Intel’s growth and innovation in key areas such as 5G networks, cloud computing, and IoT.
• Reinvigorating Intel’s core PC business, responding to increased competition and supply chain disruptions with several new products and initiatives.

Shantanu Gupta (panel moderator) spent 28 years working at Intel in a variety of roles, including server CPU design development, marketing, and business development for existing and new markets. He joined Intel after finishing graduate school and initially worked on the Intel 960 processor before joining the design team for the Pentium Pro (P6), Intel’s first server processor before Xeon. He has nine patents in the field of processor architecture and design from his work on the Pentium Pro (P6). Today, he is the CEO of Cascade Systems Technology, an EMS company located in Hillsboro, Oregon.

Putting aside the dollars being contemplated, how the spending will be funded, where investments should be targeted, and which side of the political spectrum one falls on – all formidable topics worthy of analysis in their own right — there has long been agreement in D.C. that some sizeable investment in our nation’s infrastructure is necessary to keep America competitive in the decades ahead and to improve our quality of life both now and well into the future.

Moreover, today there appears to be cross-the-aisle acknowledgement that economic woes associated with the pandemic have lent new urgency and momentum to the concept.

Rather than dive into the plan’s details — for that, I suggest you review the Administration’s own write-up or read the summations of reputable media (for instance the New York Times analysis of the Biden plan) — I thought I might offer a couple of observations from the perspective of a technologist and a member of the electronics industry.

1. Whatever the final size of the plan, the electronics sector stands to gain from its implementation. Whether we’re supplying electronic vehicles, unmanned vehicles, or systems that make for smarter rail, air, and maritime infrastructure envisioned in the plan; developing the AI and sensor technology that will empower the plan’s next-gen energy systems; or delivering the advances that will manifest the smart-buildings President Biden’s plan envisions… The electronics industry will be critical to — and benefit from — the amped up spending being contemplated in the halls of power (Just think of all the electronics that’ll be needed in tomorrow’s “smart cities.”).The upside will be even more impressive if, as President Biden’s current plan suggests, the final spending includes anything like the $50 billion targeted for building a much needed and resilient U.S. semiconductor industry. I’ll have more to say about this important topic in my next blog!
2. Electronics companies will be driven by and see opportunities at all stages of the plan’s implementation. The term “infrastructure” often brings to mind images of tangible end-results: newly paved roads, shiny new airports, new cell towers and wind turbines rising from the horizon. But if you also think of infrastructure as a chronological process, its implications and impact are even more considerable.
   • Just consider how much computing power, R&D, problem solving, and electronics-driven collaboration will be needed to design, devise, develop, scope-out, and visualize forthcoming infrastructure projects before a shovel even touches the soil.
   • Next, think of all the electronics involved during the construction phase (e.g. mobile communications used by construction crews, electronics on-board today’s increasingly sophisticated equipment and machinery, etc.)
   • Then, ponder the electronics-rich technology and functionality embedded in the infrastructure itself (e.g. IoT enabled utility meters, smart waste bins that advise consumers on what’s compostable and recyclable, GPS-guided construction, emergency response, and rail control).
   • Last, but certainly not least, imagine the benefits once this newly deployed infrastructure is actually in place! From rural communities that are connected and accessible as never before — to urban centers powered by clean, sustainable energy… Infrastructure investments made now will have a compounding effect and yield untold future opportunities for U.S. competitiveness and companies who drive it.
3. Technologists can play an active role in forwarding infrastructure spending! Again, regardless of your political bent or view on funding President Biden’s plan — I fervently believe, as I’ve outlined above, that now is the time to:
   • invest in R&D and new products that meet the needs related to next-gen infrastructure;
   • beef up business development, sales, and marketing activities that will be bring new, infrastructure-suitable products/services to market;
   • actively stay informed about infrastructure opportunities, activities, and contracts in your segment, region, or locality – so you can bid on work to be performed, capture supply contracts, and provide the “smart” infrastructure that’ll be put in place;
   • get involved in, and engage with, coalitions, governmental bodies, exploratory committees, standards-writing organizations, trade-group initiatives, and other activities that will inevitably drive or guide RFQs, scoping documents, and spending;
   • and, most of all, lend your support and your voice to the cause by reaching out to your local, State, and Federal representatives — and letting the powers that be know you support the effort to rebuild and re-energize America’s infrastructure.

My belief is that President Biden’s plan will provide massive opportunities for electronics businesses like Cascade Systems Technology, our suppliers, and our customers.

If you concur and would like to brainstorm ways to leverage and seize these opportunities, let me know! CST has a host of services that can help customers bring infrastructure-ready products to market, and we’d love to partner-up with others in our sector to help make America stronger and more competitive!

And, don’t forget to check back again next month or so, when I’ll weigh in on the importance of strengthening our semiconductor supply infrastructure, in particular!

–  Shantanu R. Gupta,
CEO, Cascade Systems Technology

And then there’s the technology we’ve been exploring with some of our customers here at Cascade Systems Technology that are increasingly allowing many subsegments of the ag business to extend – or even untether from — the outdoor growing season: LEDs.

Fairly amazing in their own right — given innate advantages like energy efficiency, instantaneous  infinitely variable output (both intensity and color), cooler operating temperatures, among others – LEDs become even more powerful allies when paired with other fast-developing technologies such as Cloud-connected AI, edge sensors, video analytics, and ever more sophisticated software controls.

Such combinations are allowing green- and hot-house growers of everything from leafy lettuce to cannabis to design and deploy sensor- and AI- enabled LED light systems that detect the presence and size of flower buds, plant height, leaf growth, color, and soil conditions – constantly adjusting timing, light levels, and frequency to create the most optimum environment for the plants in question.

These same systems can also:

• influence specific qualities in the plants themselves (e.g. superior tasting tomatoes, ideal THC levels in legal marijuana, etc.);
• enable ‘vertical’ farming in space-constrained urban gardens, optimizing nutritional value;
• and provide indoor growers with additional control of temperature, humidity, disease, pests, and more – all the while mimicking natural outdoor growing seasons.

Of course, agriculture and horticulture are just two of many industry sectors where, shall we call them, “intelligent LED systems” are affecting revolutionary change. Also consider their impact on:

Healthcare – Putting aside the countless LEDs we see flashing at us from equipment in a hospital room, exam room, or ER – or those that enhance and/or pinpoint lighting in surgical, orthodontic, and diagnostics procedures — did you know ever smart LED systems are being used to fight acne, heal wounds, and perform pre-emptive strikes on skin cells prone to cancer? To safely warm and fight jaundice in premature babies? To more precisely monitor glucose levels, blood oxygen, and other vitals?

Transportation – In addition to the impact that ordinary LEDs have had inside airplane cockpits, locomotives, and automotive dashboards and exterior lighting assemblies (just think of how futuristic the lowly brake light has become over the last four or five years) – LEDs managed or informed by AI, sensors, and cloud-connectivity are finding their way into and enhancing airports, rail stations, roadways, and even parking applications. One application I read about featured an IOT-equipped LED streetlamp that can instantaneously detect a nearby car accident, automatically triggering a brighter output, video recording of the scene for future analysis, and an alert to local authorities. How cool is that?

Entertainment – In a previous blog, I touched on lighting advances on next-gen movie sets, but of course, advances in lighting technologies – LEDs included — are revolutionizing theaters, museums, dance clubs, movie theaters, restaurants, among other entertainment venues. A prime example is sports arenas, where a colleague of mine has been involved with bringing wirelessly controlled LEDs into stadiums and hockey rinks: In addition to lowering energy bills and enabling performance monitoring, diagnostics, and preventive maintenance — these enabled LEDs will be able to create lighting effects for halftime shows, corporate sponsors’ marketing promotions, and color-coded celebrations when teams put points on the board. (I imagine Portland’s Moda Center awash with “red” light to when the Trail Blazers bring home a win.)

In short – just as smarter and web-enabled electronics have, as a whole, have found their way into nearly every device, machine, or piece of equipment in our personal, work, and public lives – LEDs and enabled LEDs are lighting the way to all kinds of amazing, future possibilities.*

I can’t wait to see where they’ll show up, and what they’ll make possible, next!

Need help integrating LED technology into your product? Cascade Systems Technology offers a wide and ever more advanced range of surface mount technology (SMT) techniques, approaches, and advantages along with Box Build/Board rework capabilities. We are ISO 9001 & UL-796 certified, ITAR registered and achieve IPC A-610 industry quality standard.

I’d love to hear your idea, tackle your toughest challenges, and bring your idea to life! Contact me to discuss the possibilities, CST’s capabilities, or initiate a quote.

–  Shantanu R. Gupta,
CEO, Cascade Systems Technology

* “Almost half of all light sources in the world were LEDs in 2019” and it is projected that by 2030, some 87 percent of all light sources will be LEDs” — achieving a global market size of “about 70 billion U.S. dollars in 2019” which is then “expected to grow to almost 100 billion U.S. dollars in 2030.” (Statisa)