Nicholas DeWolf (July 12, 1928 – April 16, 2006) was co-founder of

Teradyne Teradyne, Inc. is an American automatic test equipment (ATE) designer and manufacturer based in North Reading, Massachusetts. Teradyne's high-profile customers include Samsung, Qualcomm, Intel, Analog Devices, Texas Instruments and IBM. His ...

, a

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

-based manufacturer of

automatic test equipment Automatic test equipment or automated test equipment (ATE) is any apparatus that performs tests on a device, known as the device under test (DUT), equipment under test (EUT) or unit under test (UUT), using automation to quickly perform measurements ...

. He founded the company in 1960 with

Alex d'Arbeloff Alexander Vladimir d'Arbeloff (December 21, 1927 – July 8, 2008) was the Georgian-American co-founder of Teradyne, a multibillion-dollar Boston, Massachusetts-based manufacturer of automatic test equipment (ATE). Early life He was born to a ...

, a classmate at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the mo ...

.Abraham, Chad
"Computer pioneer dies at 77: Nick DeWolf's genius illuminated, soaked Aspen"
''

Aspen Times ''The Aspen Times'' is an 11,500-circulation, 7-day-a-week newspaper in the ski resort town of Aspen, Colorado, United States, with a history dating back to 1881. History The Aspen Weekly Times' first issue was published April 23, 1881 when Asp ...

'', April 17, 2006

Early life and education

DeWolf was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

and graduated with an S.B. in EECS from

in 1948.

Career

During his eleven years as CEO of Teradyne, DeWolf is credited with designing more than 300 semiconductor and other test systems, including the J259, the world's first computer-operated integrated circuit tester. After leaving Teradyne in 1971, DeWolf moved to

Aspen Aspen is a common name for certain tree species; some, but not all, are classified by botanists in the section ''Populus'', of the ''Populus'' genus. Species These species are called aspens: *'' Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (China ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

, where in 1979, he teamed with artist Travis Fulton to create Aspen's "dancing fountain". DeWolf also designed a computer system without

hard disk A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...

s or fans; this system (the ON! computer) booted up in seconds, a much faster time than even the computers of today.

Awards

*1979:

Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International SEMI is an industry association comprising companies involved in the electronics design and manufacturing supply chain. They provide equipment, materials and services for the manufacture of semiconductors, photovoltaic panels, LED and flat panel ...

SEMI Award for North America. *2001: Telluride Tech Festival Award of Technology, Boulder, CO. *2005: inducted into the Aspen Hall of Fame with wife Maggie DeWolf.

Photography

DeWolf was also a keen and prolific photographer. His son-in-law and archivist, Steve Lundeen, is scanning DeWolf's complete archive and making it available on

Flickr Flickr ( ; ) is an American image hosting and video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was a popular way for amateur and professional ...

Death

DeWolf died in Aspen, Colorado at the age of 77.

Quotes

* "What the customer demands is last year's model, cheaper. To find out what the customer needs you have to understand what the customer is doing as well as he understands it. Then you build what he needs and you educate him to the fact that he needs it." * "To select a component, size a product, design a system or plan a new company, first test the extremes and then have the courage to resist what is popular and the wisdom to choose what is best".Online Entrepreneurship Survey Course
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References

External links

The photographic archive of Nick DeWolf
on Flickr *

biography at The Chip History Center *

* ttp://nickdewolf.typepad.com/blog/ Nick DeWolf A/V Artifacts {{DEFAULTSORT:Dewolf, Nick 1928 births 2006 deaths Computer hardware engineers American company founders