RIP, Jim. You will be missed.
Jim Williams passed away yesterday. He was one of the few, near unique engineers who could design the most elegant circuits then intelligibly write about how it was done and go even further describing the uses for them. I always admired his application notes, both for their succinctness and clarity. He wasn't out to just pedal the current hot IC, the darn thing had to have true value. This probably didn't endear him to the sales oriented executives at National Semiconductor, which was why he jumped ship to Linear Technology where he was encouraged to carry on as always. National was never the same after Jim.
If I had to pick out one seminal engineer who influenced circuit design the most, it would be Jim. His works sparked new designs not only in the US, but many other countries as well. He was a true world class engineer.
If I had to pick out one seminal engineer who influenced circuit design the most, it would be Jim. His works sparked new designs not only in the US, but many other countries as well. He was a true world class engineer.