Bernie Vonderschmitt

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bernard (Bernie) Vonderschmitt (October 14, 1923 – June 9, 2004) was an electrical engineer, most noted as a co-founder of leading FPGA producer Xilinx.

Vonderschmitt graduated with a BSEE from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (then called Rose Polytechnic Institute) in 1944. He also received a MSEE degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and later an honorary doctorate from Rider University.

Vonderschmitt began his career with RCA, and worked with them for 34 years, taking a short time during World War II to serve in the US Navy as an electronics officer. He holds 13 patents that cover color television and solid state electronics.

After leaving RCA, he worked briefly for Zilog, before co-founding Xilinx together with Ross Freeman and Jim Barnett in 1984. With Xilinx, he pioneered the fabless business model which is now used by a large number of semiconductor companies around the world.

In 2002, he retired from Xilinx, with the company entrenched as the worldwide leader in FPGA marketshare.

On June 9, 2004 Vonderschmitt passed away in his hometown of Jasper, Indiana.