Product Code Database
Ralph Kelley Ungermann (January 20, 1942 – June 2, 2015) was an American engineer and Entrepreneurship. He is best known for founding Zilog with Federico Faggin and Ungermann-Bass with Charlie Bass. Due to his work at U-B, he was considered to be a founding father of the data communications industry.
At first, Ralph wanted to study law but he changed his idea to study engineering after witnessing the launch of Sputnik 1, the first satellite ever to space. He enrolled at University of California, Berkeley and received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. Then he received a master's degree in computer architecture from University of California, Irvine. After college, Ralph started to work at Kodak in Rochester, NY. He then joined Collins Radio in 1967, where he became fascinated with and early LAN technology.
Shortly before Collins Radio was acquired by Rockwell International in 1971, Ralph left in 1970 prior to business failure and joined Western Digital. There he has created the first chip capable of UART communication.
During the 1973–1974 stock market crash, Ralph and Faggin decided to leave Intel due to low wages and form their own company. At first they planned to be involved in the systems business, but as their departure became public via Electronic News due to Intel's popularity, Exxon reached out and convinced them to keep their dedication in microprocessors.
At Zilog, Ralph also developed several I/O chips like he had done at Intel such as Z80-SIO (Serial I/O), Z80-PIO (Parallel I/O) and Z80-CTC (Counter/Timer Circuit).
Due to the success of Z80, Exxon invested more in Zilog but as a result demanded more from the company. Ungermann got dissatisfied with the pressure and clashed with the Exxon management. As a result, he was asked to leave at the end of 1978.
Due to stock market crash of 1987, the company's financial status was devastated. Thinking that it was necessary to get under a big computer manufacturer to stabilize the company and reach to bigger clients, Ungermann pursued talks with Tandem Computers. In February 1988 Tandem acquired U-B for $260 Million. Ungermann became a vice-president and board member of Tandem.
In 2003 he was among founders of a Chinese investment company called China Seed LLC.
Ralph died on June 2, 2015, due to lewy body and his remains were cremated at Fernwood Funeral Home on June 28.
|
|
