Andy Viterbi: Wireless Pioneer, Co-Founder of Qualcomm - A Historic Perspective (#118)

Communications pioneer Andrew J.Viterbi — who in 1962 earned one of the first doctorates in electrical engineering granted at the University of Southern California — has forever changed how people everywhere connect and communicate.

Dr.Viterbi’s lifelong interest in communications began as a child, when his family fled Italy for America in 1939 to escape the persecution of Jews.

Born into an analog world, this visionary thinker opened the doors to the digital age with the Viterbi Algorithm, a groundbreaking mathematical formula for eliminating signal interference. Today, the Viterbi Algorithm is used in all four international standards for digital cellular telephones, as well as in data terminals, digital satellite broadcast receivers and deep space telemetry.

In the spring of 1967, Dr.Viterbi met Irwin Jacobs at a telecommunications conference in California. Both men, and another of Dr. Viterbi’s colleagues, Leonard Kleinrock, shared an interest in forming a consulting group. With an investment of $1,500 — $500 from each man — the trio founded Linkabit. By the 1970s, Linkabit began providing technology for defense communications satellites using very large antennas.

Dr. Viterbi and his Linkabit associates came up with a breakthrough computer to accomplish the task and dubbed it a “microprocessor,” even though it was made up of many chips.

His renown grew as fast as the company. In 1975, Italy’s National Research Council awarded Dr. Viterbi one of its highest academic accolades, the Christopher Columbus Award.

In 1980, Linkabit merged with M/A-COM of Boston. It soon produced the VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal), the foundation for private satellite communications networks. In 1985, the VSAT division was sold to Hughes. The team of Viterbi and Jacobs had a new dream: together, they founded Qualcomm Corp. to develop and manufacture satellite communications and digital wireless telephones.

• 00:00:00 Intro
• 00:01:12 How did you come to write your latest book?
• 00:03:02 Centro Primo Levi NYC and The Italian Jewish Experience
• 00:05:27 Knowing Primo Levi
• 17:53:06 Early days of wireless digital communications
• 00:23:33 Why didn't you patent the Viterbi Algorithm?
• 00:25:20 How do you separate tech hype from reality? 4G Vs 5G?
• 00:30:47 The commercial value of basic research and how to keep funding it.
• 00:38:16 Would a tax on scientific innovation impeed progress?
• 00:42:00 What do you think about SETI? How would you communicate with an alien civilization?
• 00:48:32 What would you put in your ethical will?
• 00:51:27 What would you put in your billion-year time capsule?
• 00:53:56 What advice would you give your younger self?

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