Daniel W. Dobberpuhl
- March 25, 1945
- October 26, 2019
- 74 years
About Daniel W. Dobberpuhl
Daniel W. Dobberpuhl, 74, American electrical engineer.
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Full Biography
|Daniel William Dobberpuhl (March 25, 1945 – October 26, 2019) was an electrical engineer in the United States who led several teams of microprocessor designers.
Background
Dobberpuhl was born in Streator, Illinois on March 25, 1945. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1967. He worked as an engineer for the Department of Defense until 1973 when he worked for GE Integrated Circuits Laboratory in Syracuse, New York, making application-specific integrated circuits.
DEC
In 1976 Dobberpuhl joined Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in Hudson, Massachusetts as a semiconductor engineer and led teams designing microprocessors such as the DEC T-11 and MicroVAX. He rose to become one of five senior corporate consulting engineers, DEC's highest technical positions. As such, he led the teams designing the first three generations of the DEC Alpha processor and in 1985 published a textbook called "The Design and Analysis of VLSI Circuits", described as "a leading text in the field."
He founded and directed the company's Palo Alto, California Design Center in 1993 where the StrongARM architecture was designed.
SiByte
Following the transfer of StrongARM to Intel, in 1998 Dobberpuhl co-founded SiByte, where as president he led the design of the SB1250 64-bit MIPS system on a chip processor, intended for high-performance networking applications. In 1998 EE Times named Dobberpuhl as one of the "40 forces to shape the future of the Semiconductor Industry". SiByte was funded by venture capital, as well as large companies such as ATI Technologies, Cisco Systems, and Juniper Networks, closing a third round of $40 million in funding in May 2000. Shortly after the company announced their SB1250 processor in August, the company was bought by Broadcom in November of that year for stock worth over $2 billion. Dobberpuhl stayed until 2003 as vice-president and general manager of the Broadcom broadband processor division.
In 2003 the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers named him a recipient of the IEEE Donald O. Pederson Award in Solid-State Circuits for "Pioneering design of high-speed and low-power microprocessors."
P.A. Semi
Later in 2003 he left to found P.A. Semi, a fabless semiconductor company that designed the PWRficient family of Power ISA processors. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2006 for "Innovative design and implementation of high-performance, low-power microprocessors." In 2008 P.A. Semi was sold to Apple Inc. for a reported $278M USD.
He received a Distinguished Alumni Award by University of Illinois in 2003, and the College Of Engineering Alumni Honor Award from the University of Illinois in May 2009.
Agnilux
Dobberpuhl retired from Apple near the end of 2009, leaving to join the startup Agnilux, who were acquired by Google shortly afterwards in April 2010.
He held 15 patents.
Dobberpuhl was Chairman of the Board for embedded machine vision company Movidius.
He died at Pacific Grove, California on October 26, 2019.
Works
- Lance A. Glasser; Daniel W. Dobberpuhl (1985). The design and analysis of VLSI circuits. Addison Wesley. ISBN 978-0-201-12580-1.
- D.W. Dobberpuhl; et al. (November 1992). "A 200-MHz 64-b dual-issue CMOS microprocessor". IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits. 27 (11): 1555–1567. Bibcode:1992IJSSC..27.1555D. doi:10.1109/4.165336. S2CID 18106281.
- D.W. Dobberpuhl (September 15, 1997). "Circuits and technology for Digital's StrongARM and ALPHA microprocessors [CMOS technology]". Proceedings Seventeenth Conference on Advanced Research in VLSI. pp. 2–11. doi:10.1109/ARVLSI.1997.634842. ISBN 978-0-8186-7913-1. S2CID 37135123.
- Committee on Sustaining Growth in Computing Performance (March 21, 2011). The Future of Computing Performance: Game Over or Next Level?. National Academies Press. ISBN 978-0-309-15951-7.
Content from Wikipedia — licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
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Sources
- Wikipedia
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_W._Dobberpuhl
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Sep 26, 2026
- View article
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- October 6, 2026
- Sep 26, 2026
Trivia & Knowledge· 16 questions
Questions drawn from Daniel W. Dobberpuhl's archived record and the sources above.
1.In what city was Daniel W. Dobberpuhl born?
- A.Streator, Illinoiscorrect
- B.Hudson, Massachusetts
- C.Palo Alto, California
- D.Pacific Grove, California
Daniel W. Dobberpuhl was born in Streator, Illinois on March 25, 1945.
Source: Background section
2.From which university did Daniel W. Dobberpuhl earn his Bachelor of Science degree in 1967?
- A.Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- B.University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaigncorrect
- C.Stanford University
- D.University of California, Berkeley
Daniel W. Dobberpuhl graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1967.
Source: Background section
3.In what year did Daniel W. Dobberpuhl join Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)?
- A.1993
- B.1976correct
- C.1973
- D.1985
In 1976, Daniel W. Dobberpuhl joined Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in Hudson, Massachusetts as a semiconductor engineer.
Source: DEC section
4.What is the title of the textbook published by Daniel W. Dobberpuhl in 1985?
- A.The Design and Analysis of VLSI Circuitscorrect
- B.Modern Digital Circuitry
- C.Fundamentals of Semiconductor Engineering
- D.High-Performance Microprocessors
Daniel W. Dobberpuhl published a textbook in 1985 called The Design and Analysis of VLSI Circuits.
Source: DEC section
5.Which architecture was designed at the Palo Alto Design Center founded by Daniel W. Dobberpuhl in 1993?
- A.MIPS
- B.StrongARMcorrect
- C.Alpha
- D.Power ISA
Daniel W. Dobberpuhl founded the company's Palo Alto, California Design Center in 1993 where the StrongARM architecture was designed.
Source: DEC section
6.What was the name of the company co-founded by Daniel W. Dobberpuhl in 1998?
- A.SiBytecorrect
- B.Movidius
- C.P.A. Semi
- D.Agnilux
Following the transfer of StrongARM to Intel, in 1998 Daniel W. Dobberpuhl co-founded SiByte.
Source: SiByte section
7.Which company acquired SiByte in November 2000?
- A.Apple Inc.
- B.Cisco Systems
- C.Intel
- D.Broadcomcorrect
After SiByte announced their SB1250 processor, the company was bought by Broadcom in November 2000 for stock worth over $2 billion.
Source: SiByte section
8.For what achievement was Daniel W. Dobberpuhl named a recipient of the IEEE Donald O. Pederson Award in 2003?
- A.Pioneering design of high-speed and low-power microprocessorscorrect
- B.Managing the acquisition of SiByte
- C.Writing the leading textbook in the field of VLSI
- D.Founding the P.A. Semi company
The IEEE named him a recipient of the Donald O. Pederson Award in 2003 for pioneering design of high-speed and low-power microprocessors.
Source: SiByte section
9.What family of processors was designed by the company P.A. Semi?
- A.Alpha
- B.SB1250
- C.PWRficientcorrect
- D.StrongARM
P.A. Semi was a fabless semiconductor company that designed the PWRficient family of Power ISA processors.
Source: P.A. Semi section
10.In what year was Daniel W. Dobberpuhl elected to the National Academy of Engineering?
- A.2003
- B.2009
- C.2008
- D.2006correct
Daniel W. Dobberpuhl was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2006 for innovative design and implementation of high-performance, low-power microprocessors.
Source: P.A. Semi section
11.For how much money was P.A. Semi reported to be sold to Apple Inc. in 2008?
- A.$278 millioncorrect
- B.$150 million
- C.$2 billion
- D.$40 million
In 2008 P.A. Semi was sold to Apple Inc. for a reported $278M USD.
Source: P.A. Semi section
12.Daniel W. Dobberpuhl left Apple at the end of 2009 to join which startup?
- A.Movidius
- B.Cisco Systems
- C.Agniluxcorrect
- D.Broadcom
Daniel W. Dobberpuhl retired from Apple near the end of 2009, leaving to join the startup Agnilux.
Source: Agnilux section
13.How many patents did Daniel W. Dobberpuhl hold in total?
- A.20
- B.10
- C.15correct
- D.5
The biography explicitly states that Daniel W. Dobberpuhl held 15 patents.
Source: Agnilux section
14.What role did Daniel W. Dobberpuhl hold at the embedded machine vision company Movidius?
- A.CEO
- B.President
- C.Chairman of the Boardcorrect
- D.Chief Technical Officer
Daniel W. Dobberpuhl was Chairman of the Board for embedded machine vision company Movidius.
Source: Agnilux section
15.Where did Daniel W. Dobberpuhl die in 2019?
- A.Streator, Illinois
- B.Hudson, Massachusetts
- C.Palo Alto, California
- D.Pacific Grove, Californiacorrect
Daniel W. Dobberpuhl died at Pacific Grove, California on October 26, 2019.
Source: Agnilux section
16.Which of these organizations provided funding for SiByte?
- A.Microsoft
- B.Juniper Networkscorrect
- C.Google
- D.IBM
SiByte was funded by venture capital, as well as large companies such as ATI Technologies, Cisco Systems, and Juniper Networks.
Source: SiByte section
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