

Image courtesy of Fran Hoffart. Click to enlarge. Image courtesy of Fran Hoffart.

Robert Reay, vice president and general manager of mixed-signal products at Linear Tech observes, “Jim’s home lab was very well organized, and the complete opposite of the LTC lab. My method of gauging lab organization is to observe the banana cable racks. In Jim’s home lab they were neatly organized by type, length, and color. My conclusion is that Jim’s LTC lab bench had become so iconic, that he was forced to keep it as it was to maintain its reputation.”



Image courtesy of Ron Quan. Click to enlarge. Image courtesy of Ron Quan.

Jim’s bench had become such a Silicon Valley legend that the Computer History Museum moved Williams’ bench from the lab at Linear to an installation that ran for over six months in the museum. After that period, Linear Tech moved it back to a second-floor lab in building 5, their “Guru’s lair.” That same large picture of Jim adorns the wall. One of the young lab techs told me “It makes me more careful and diligent. It looks like he is watching me wherever I go in the room.”Despite his engineering, writing, and customer-support duties, Williams also went out to do presentations and meet with customers. He did a great presentation at the AES (audio engineers society) conference, where he talked about restoring the first HP oscillator model. He refused to disclose what he spent to acquire it, since his wife was in the audience and he said, “She would kill me if she knew how much it cost.” Hoffart noted, “Jim loved HP test equipment.”



This 6.331 invited lecture took place in December 2009. Image courtesy of Fran Hoffart.

Click to enlarge. This 6.331 invited lecture took place in December 2009. Image courtesy of Fran Hoffart.

Williams always maintained that analog circuit design is art. He took this to the literal sense, by making working circuits arranged in fascinating and visually appealing configurations. He also appreciated the art of any working circuit. He had the electronics of a Minuteman missile unfurled on his living room wall.



Image courtesy of Fran Hoffart. Click to enlarge. Image courtesy of Fran Hoffart.

Williams’ circuits and electronic sculpture were art, but his clear schematics were artistic in their own right. Below is the schematic of the current-measuring circuit Jim used to evaluate watch crystals. Jim told me he had the Heisenberg problem, measuring the minuscule currents would affect the circuit, changing the frequency of operation. He was able to figure that out and compensate for it. Williams did a video describing the circuit. I was with the camera crew when Jim said he was busy but he was sure he could do the video in one take. The crew was skeptical and the camera person told me that it never happens, an amateur just pulling it off in one take. Jim did it in one take.



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Many great men have a great woman behind them. Jim’s wife Siu was in front of him. Jim was so anti-digital that he didn’t own a computer. This made things difficult when working with EDN three time zones away. So Siu gave us her personal email address. If things got crazy and we need to email Jim, we knew Siu would get it to him. In the weeks before he died Jim and Siu had a vacation in Hawaii. Jim told me it was the best vacation of his life. He was so happy that it was the first vacation he ever had where he did not want to come home. It took a lot to stop Jim thinking about circuits, but Siu could do it.



Image courtesy of Fran Hoffart Image courtesy of Fran Hoffart

Every engineer should miss Jim Williams and mourn his passing. Jim loved the demanding design specialty that is analog engineering. How analog was Williams? He was so analog even his digital clock was analog. Now that is an analog aficionado.

As I sifted through thousands of pictures, I found a snapshot I took of an early prototype of Jim’s acoustic thermometer (below). Just as fascinating is the bowl of components along side it. Everything about Williams was unique, from his prototypes to his interest in arcane and obscure gizmos.



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In the photo below, Jim is admiring a frequency standard bought by his CTO pal Dennis Monticelli at a CHRS (California Historical Radio Society) flea market on August 7, 2010. Jim loved his fellow engineers and would have a great time at the flea markets, or parties, or seminars. To me that was his most remarkable characteristic. Sure, brilliant mind, successful engineer, nice house, pretty wife, all wonderful things, but perhaps the most wonderful thing about Jim is that he was a social animal. I wrote him a note decades ago, and he wrote me back, then came and visited my consulting shop, and commenced a great friendship that got deeper every year. He would call me up, almost once week, just to say hi and see what I was working on.

Jim Williams never tried to show people up with his smarts, he just wanted to help them. I had engineers call me up asking about one of Jim’s articles in EDN. I asked why they were calling me, and not Jim. “Oh, I don’t want to bother him, he won’t want to talk to a lowly engineer.” I gave those folks Jim’s number at Linear Tech. I explained he did not have voice-mail, but he always would pick up if he was there. If not, the call would go to the Linear Tech receptionist, who would be sure to give Jim the message. I had several of those engineers write back or call me in amazement, talking about how Williams not only answered, but would talk with them for an hour about some intractable problem. When I asked Jim, he looked surprised and said, “Heck, I am an application engineer. It’s my job to listen to their problems, and to help fix those problems.” The world is a lesser place without Jim Williams answering the phone and fixing our problems.

Jim’s friends remember

Todd Nelson , mixed signal applications engineering manager at Linear Tech notes, “Jim's legacy is timeless. Yes, he made his name when application circuits were made with discretes, often dead-bug or air-wired, which is nearly impossible today. Little was simulated, none required software programming. Yet even today, you can read his articles and feel the joy he brought to his work. He had an amazing ability to teach and his style worked no matter what your background or level of experience. He drew you in and made you smile. Like a good movie where you stay and watch the credits, you read every word of Jim's application notes. Even the appendix and the cartoon. He thought about every detail – that every solder joint is a thermocouple (and he would deliberately slice a trace and solder it back together to balance another joint); that every transistor had its quirks and you needed to get to know them; that every wire is an antenna; and especially that measurement was as important as the circuit itself. He taught us so much more than how his circuits work.”

Steve Pietkiewicz , vice president and general manager of power products at Linear Tech relates, “When Jim was married to Celia (mother of his son Michael), they both worked and neither could bother to cook dinner. Their freezer was filled with microwave dinners. They’d open the freezer and say, ‘What’s for dinner?’ One of them would take out a package, say, ‘What about this one? Nah, look, this takes 4 minutes on defrost and then 2 minutes on high! No good!’ Back in the freezer it would go. Another one would be examined, ‘How’s this one? Great, only 3 minutes on high! Sounds good to me!’ It was so funny, the important metric was how long it took to cook in the microwave, not what the food was. Jim also would never microwave something for 10, 20, or 30 seconds. He said it took too long to move his finger from the 1 or 2 or 3 to the 0. Instead, he microwaved stuff for 11 seconds, or 22, or 33. Every time I use a microwave, when I need 10, or 20, or 30 seconds I too set it for 11, or 22, or 33 seconds, and think of Jim.”

Professor Thomas H. Lee of Stanford University remembers, “Jim was famously generous. While walking with him at the De Anza Electronics Flea Market I joked that I couldn't find any Tek 547 oscilloscopes in decent condition. It was rumored he had scooped up all the good ones in the Valley, and most of the bad ones as well, to keep the good ones good. Next thing I know, we're headed to Linear Tech, whereupon he pulls a dusty but pristine 547 out from underneath his famous bench. ‘This one's straight from the factory. I powered it up not long ago, and everything should work great. Let's turn it on and make sure.’ The fantastic pencil-thin trace came on and all was indeed good. That 547 is a cherished heirloom and reminder of Jim's big heart.”

Lee continues, “His generosity didn't stop there. Beyond sharing an unhealthy obsession with Tek scopes, we shared an appreciation of the history of our craft. At another eFlea, he asked me if I would like to meet Julius ‘Julie’ Blank, one of the “Traitorous Eight” who left Shockley Semiconductor to found Fairchild. I replied ‘That's a trick question, right? Just tell me where to show up, and when!’ Jim and his wonderful wife Siu hosted an unforgettable dinner at their lovely home. Julie had participated in a film about Silicon Valley, The Real Revolutionaries . He shared a couple of great stories. I was privileged to dine with two greats, and am saddened that they're no longer with us.”

Jim’s sister Jane Reiser Williams recalls, “Jim was noted for his genius and his accomplishments, but that was a minuscule part of the brother I knew and loved. He was my buddy in arms, growing up so close in age, and so active in our pranks together. He was kind, funny, and sweet. He lived by a strong set of personal ethics that he learned from our father, and he did not compromise them. He loved his son Michael dearly, and cherished Siu with all his heart. He reached out to his siblings whenever they were in need. He was generous with our mother in his compassion for her twelve-year struggle with Alzheimer’s, and with his support of me as I coordinated her care. He was my rock, my voice of sanity, and one of the few people who could make me giggle. Impressive as a scientist, yes, but more importantly: a truly good man. As this 5th anniversary arrives, I will light a Yahrzeit memorial candle for him as I do every year, and sigh sadly that I will never again pick up the phone to hear that sunny greeting: ‘It’s your brother!’”

Len Sherman adds, “In the MIT lab Jim had a blue zippered rectangular bag framed on the wall. He told me when he first got to Cambridge from Detroit, he went to Lincoln Labs, a research lab associated with MIT, to get an electronics job. They told him with no degree he could be either a janitor or a mail boy. He took the mail boy job because he figured he could get around to all the labs and see what people were doing. After a few months of carrying mail in that pouch, he talked his way into a technicians job. That was his start in tech.”

Robert Reay , vice president and general manager of mixed-signal products at Linear Tech reminisces, “Jim always made time for people when they asked for advice, and he treated everyone with the same warmth and respect that we all knew, whether they were a lab technician, or a visiting CEO. Just after starting at LTC in 1988, I began setting up a lab at home, but I didn’t have any equipment or money. I mentioned the lab to Jim, and the next day there was a Tektronix curve tracer sitting in my cubicle as a lab-warming gift. Just before Jim’s death, we were working on a current pulse generator for testing power supplies. I mentioned to Jim that my current probe at home did not have enough range to measure high currents. The next day, there was a Tektronix current probe unit sitting in my office.”

Bob Dobkin , Linear Technology co-founder and CTO remembers, “I had been friends with Jim for 35 years when he died. It was a great loss and I still feel it. Jim loved teaching as well as electronics. With new products at Linear Tech, Jim would undertake to teach people about the products as well as the techniques for testing that kind of product. Sometimes this resulted in huge app notes with many tutorial sections. Jim got many calls from students with questions. Not only would he answer the questions, he would send them parts to work with. His love of circuits and teaching show up in the number of app notes he has done. Jim said he had the best job in the world: ‘I get to work on circuits and they pay me too!’”

John Hamburger , director of marketing communications at Linear Technology recalls, “I remember his welcome when you arrived in his lab. If he wasn’t immersed in a circuit—and sometimes even if he was—he would look up and say, “What’s shakin’?” I’d sit on a stool beside his bench and discuss everything under the sun, from analog circuits he was wrestling with, to the San Francisco 49ers, to the Rolling Stones, to politics. Jim took the time with so many of us. I remember sitting in his lab years ago, the afternoon before the EDN Innovation Awards dinner, which he always looked forward to attending. We were shooting the breeze, when he suddenly looked up and asked, ‘What time is it.?’ I told him it was 2:30. He said, ‘I’ve got to get out of here.’ When I asked him why, he said that his wife expected him home, so he would have time to put on his tuxedo for the EDN Awards dinner. Jim always wore his tux to the EDN Innovation Awards. It was a part of his literary life that meant so much to him.”

His family requests that donations in Jim’s memory be made to The Parkinson’s Institute, 675 Almanor Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94085.

Paul Rako is an engineer that writes and a writer that engineers at Rako Studios.



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