Czatch-up on previous news--John Doyle

 A year ago, I posted a small note about John Doyle's passing (c.f.  March 20, 2024)

And I vowed to pen a few words in that note, but time intervened and that never happened.

Given the recent passage of John Young, I thought about that, and I found Doyle's obituary notice   https://www.mercurynews.com/obituaries/john-l-doyle-portola-valley-ca/

John, as the obit notes, was an engaging, incredibly smart, curious, adventuresome sort.   Like, the one-liner about becoming a outside window washer on the 19-story Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco.  

Nor did it mention that his sponsor in America was George Young, in Omaha, NE, which among other things led to George's son Richard and daughter Nancy both working for HP at various times.  So, irony--Richard Young and Nancy Young each consulted for HP CEO John Young (no relation).

I first met John when he came to Colorado Springs along with Bill and Dave and Barney Oliver to review what became the Logic Analyzer line, circa 1971.   John had just returned to HP after leaving to become CEO of a Hexcel Corporation division launching a new ski and a line of ski equipment.   The experiment didn't last long, and Packard offered John a 'new products' overview role to return to HP.   Later, he became HP's VP of Personnel, and then still later the VP of HP Labs, where he was instrumental in hiring Joel Birnbaum and launching the RISC computer architecture.   Still later, he became VP of Computing Systems before retiring.  His obit omits all of these titles and roles, simply saying "HP provided John the chance to wear many hats as engineer and manager."

In 1978, I got a phone call at HP from "John Doyle" who did not introduce himself (assuming that I remembered him from years earlier), but asking "are you the Chuck House who signed the cairn at the top of Hunewill Peak in the Sierra?"    Which, yes I was, and I'd done so twenty years earlier while working as a wrangler in Bridgeport, CA (population 324).   We 'bonded' over mountain climbing stories.  It also turned out that John and his family had stayed at the Hunewill Ranch multiple times over the years, and it was just total coincidence that he had climbed that mountain and found my name.  Four other names had been entered in the intervening twenty years--not exactly as popular as Mt. Everest.

Still later, I moved to Palo Alto to start Corporate Engineering, working directly for John, one desk away.  It was a fabulous learning experience, from a sagacious fun-loving 'graybeard by then (at HP, turning 50 was 'ancient' but John never let that slow him down).  Our start date was April 1, 1982, a date that I objected to, but he said, "NO, NO, that's the day the Royal Air Force (Britain) was founded."

I got to know John a bit differently as well.  I had married Nancy Young, mentioned above (met her when she consulted with HP Colorado Springs), and when we separated, John offered me time to 'settle' by moving into his Portola Valley guest home, which was wonderful because I got to know his wife Judy as a result.   The two of them were a wonderful couple, and they were very supportive at a tough time.

John and I continued to meet long after we had both retired from HP, and he and Bill Terry were the two most thorough readers of the 2009 book that Ray Price and I produced about HP (The HP Phenomenon).  He offered pages of corrections and amplifications, including that "Personnel" was really "Human Resources" which has an altogether different ring to it.  His last note to me, just a newsworthy catch-up note, was lengthy, hand-written, about six months before he passed.   Indeed, an elegant man.

John Young accomplishments outside HP

 Previous posts noted points about John Young's HP career, but the obituary accurately and appropriately mentioned his work on the national stage as well;

"John's impact extended well beyond the corporate world. Appointed by President Reagan in 1983, he chaired the President's Commission on Industrial Competitiveness, uniting leaders across sectors to enhance U.S. innovation and economic strength. He later founded the Council on Competitiveness to continue this vital work. He also co-chaired President Clinton's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology and helped establish both the Computer Systems Policy Project and Smart Valley, Inc."

"John served on the boards of numerous global corporations, including Chevron (and ChevronTexaco), Wells Fargo, GlaxoSmithKline, Lucent Technologies, Agere Systems, Affymetrix, and Novell. He was also active in the Business Council and Business Roundtable."

Ray and I debated whether to include the passages in The HP Phenomenon about John Young's discouragement with George Bush Sr.'s ignorance about technology, and Young's subsequent role in helping to get Clinton elected,, but after watching the horror show in Washington today, and the greedy toadies who masquerade as thoughtful leaders in Silicon Valley today, I am thankful that we included pages 376-379 describing John's singular efforts and the unfortunate aftermath with David Packard.   Not one of Packard's more sterling moments; certainly one of Young's most salient efforts.

Bay area residents probably have little appreciation for another role.   The obit mentions that John was "a passionate outdoorsman.  He was an avid fly fisherman who traveled the world and frequently returned to Alaska and Idaho's Teton River. He was also a skilled pilot and enjoyed pheasant hunting each fall."  This outdoor perspective played out for the Bay area.  John and Rosemary contributed heavily to the Peninsula Open Space Trust, this note from Rosemary's obituary: "Rosemary was a natural philanthropic entrepreneur and enjoyed being active in the community. The Peninsula Community Foundation was a small organization with a part-time executive when she joined the board. She became chair in 1971, hired a full-time director, and then helped to build a robust organization to raise awareness and funds that were matched with community nonprofits that needed support. The Peninsula Community Foundation merged with a similar community foundation in 2006 to form the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, now one of the largest in the country. Rosemary was an early and enthusiastic supporter of women’s causes. She volunteered to help start the Center for Research on Women as an independent institute at Stanford in 1974. Using her network and fundraising skills, the institute was launched, and its innovative approach was quickly successful and became fully endowed. Rosemary always had a special interest in open spaces and the outdoors. She was a founder and the first Board chair of the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) at its creation in 1985. An innovative organization that raises funds to buy important parcels of open space as they became available. Thousands of acres have been preserved for everyone’s enjoyment."

John Young accomplishments at HP

 This list, VERY abbreviated in my view, is taken from the obituaries published this week about John (see the previous post).

Legacy of leadership at HP: John's tenure as CEO was marked by groundbreaking strategic initiatives.

- Computing innovation: Spearheaded the development of the HP 3000 minicomputer, UNIX-based systems, personal computers, and the PA/RISC architecture.

- Printing revolution: Led HP's successful entry into the laser printer market with innovative microprocessor integration.

- Quality and Manufacturing: Launched the ambitious "10x quality goal" in 1980, driving a company-wide focus on excellence.

- Global expansion: Established local leadership around the world, making HP a truly global enterprise.

- Time-to-Market: Accelerated innovation cycles to meet rapidly evolving industry demands.

Throughout these changes, John upheld and evolved the "HP Way," blending innovation with an enduring culture of respect, ethics, and technical rigor.

I could add much to each of these stories, and in fact, our book (Ray Price and Chuck House, The HP Phenomenon, Stanford Press, 2009) does so (some even say ad nauseum,  but I think that is a chary description).

But let's add some points here.   Yes, many of those computing innovations happened under John's tenure.  There were of course others who played key roles

1. John did spearhead the HP-PA RISC program, and he did drive the entry (over Packard's vote) to enter PC's, although it was a long struggle.   The original HP 3000 and HP UNIX machines owed little directly to John, IMHO.  The handheld calculators weren't mentioned, and John was not involved with them to any degree.

2. Dick Hackborn gets full credit for the HP laser printing success, along with unsung heroes at HP Labs including Don Hamond (and Hewlett's own role with Canon).   John was a skeptic for a very long time, feeling that HP was just 'fronting' for Canon and the partnership might not work.  It did work, to the tune of several hundred billion dollars for HP, and John did of course support that.

3. Quality.   This was one of John's unique contributions, commissioning Craig Walter to lead a 10x campaign that was brilliant, and made HP stand out.   One wishes that succeeding CEOs had understood this aspect, which has in places tarnished considerably by now.   John brought the idea from a Stanford study group, and he was one of very few US CEOs who appreciated this topic before Kanban and Kaizeen and Deming and the Baldrige award became buzz-words.

4. Global expansion.   The insight and original leadership here was Bill Hewlett.  John was supportive throughout, but was not to my knowledge ever a key leader on this one.  The company was, however, as HP was one of the first US companies with operations in the UK, western Europe, and Japan, and then later in India and Mexico among others.

5. Time-to-market.    John grabbed the "Return Map" ideas that we intro'd in Corporate Engineering, and trotted them first to HP Accounting, and then to Fortune Magazine, and even got Ray Price and me into the Harvard Business Review.   John's enthusiasm for this was unparalleled, and without his bold encouragement, it would never have happened.  The net was roughly a 2x speed-up in product introductions while maintaining or improving quality/cost.

Those who knew the 'inside skinny' would probably also note that John and I had a quite complicated relationship.   He often winced at some of my insouciant comments in speeches, sometimes saying later that I was "the Loyal Opposition ".   But my respect and reverence for his perspective and leadership is second only to my admiration and awe about Bill and Dave themselves.   What a privilege it was to work with him so long and so closely.  

End of an era

 The San Jose Mercury-News this morning carried John A. Young's obituary.   93 years old, married to Rosemary for 67 years until she passed in 2021.   Wonderful obit in terms of generosity about John, and his many accomplishments.   It is available fairly widely, at Legacy.com and other places.   https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/heraldandnews/name/john-young-obituary?id=58523462.   See for example, the Klamath Falls, OR newspaper (where John and Rosemary grew up)   https://www.heraldandnews.com/john-young-obit/article_ebc6845e-a4db-4fd5-9fa1-d6bae0509936.html

The opening speaks for the man: "Visionary leader, technology pioneer, dedicated public servant, John A. Young, who succeeded founders Bill Hewlett and David Packard as CEO of Hewlett-Packard . . . .   A transformative force in technology and business, John helped shape the trajectory of Silicon Valley, modern computing and U.S. industrial policy. As CEO of HP from 1978 to 1992, he led the company through extraordinary growth - transforming it from a pioneer in test and measurement equipment into a global computing powerhouse. During his tenure, HP's annual revenue grew from $1.3 billion to $16 billion."

"John also served as chairman of President Reagan's Commission on Industrial Competitiveness, playing a key role in strengthening America's position in high technology sectors. He was widely respected for his integrity, humility and even-tempered leadership."

After earning his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, John began his career at Hewlett-Packard as a marketing planner in the microwave division. His steady confidence and visionary leadership saw him rise rapidly through the company: regional sales manager, marketing manager, vice president of the Electronic Products Group, and executive vice president of the Instrument, Computer, and Components groups. In 1977, when founders Hewlett and Packard retired, they selected John as their successor. True to form, John downplayed the moment, telling reporters, "Three letters - CEO - moved from Hewlett to me. That's all."

Ernie Arbuckle, long on HP's board, had a nice statement about John that rings true for me:

"His character left a lasting impression on all who knew him. "John is the kind of person everyone would like to work with-someone who keeps his promise, is easy to get along with, shows good judgment, and tries to see the other person's side of things." 

HPE in the NEWS

 Front page of the San Jose Mercury-News yesterday--News Flash, HP builds world's fastest computer!!!

Well, it didn't exactly say that.  It said that Lawrence Livermore Labs built the world's fastest computer, announced at the prestigious SuperComputer Conference in Atlanta by Robert Neely, head of LLL's weapons group.   In the fifth paragraph, it has this appealing (to me) sentence: "The $600 million behemoth, built by Hewlett Packard Enterprise using chips from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), is the latest chart-topper in the global race to build faster computers."

Well, doggone!   ACM and IEEE co-sponsor the Supercomputer Conference, and HP has exhibited for years there.   I've got many friends for whom this is THE conference, even more than SIGGRAPH.  And as an old ACM President, I always feel a certain bit of pride over the achievements ballyhooed at this event.  But, mygawd, HPE has just built the bestest of the best, AGAIN.  Wow.   

Here is the Merc blurb: https://edition.pagesuite.com/popovers/dynamic_article_popover.aspx?guid=939756d6-8601-45c8-8c49-0948f2f80343&appcode=SAN252&eguid=0553042f-3143-4b14-b8a5-6ec7f3312223&pnum=1#

Seems to be tho that someone at HP should be out shouting about this.   Have you seen anything?

Kinda seems like AMD and HP are missing a marketing try here, or have you heard that Intel is up for sale (gawd, can you imagine?), and NASDAQ took them off the list of top companies.  Have you heard that Nvidia stock is up 1400% in a year, and that HP capitalization is worth less than current revenue?

Let's put this in perspective:   Nvidia announced quarterly revenue and profits today, a whopping $35 billion up from $31 billion estimate, so the stock slid 3% to a mere $3.58 trillion in capitalization (some 25x current revenue).   Intel's current run rate (remeber that they used to build high-end computer chips?) is $50 Billion per year, and their capitalization is $103 Billion.  So Nvidia is valued 35 TIMES more than Intel.  Whew!

Of course, a current quarter of $13 Billion in revenue, with a LOSS of $18 Billion, might be driving this stock price.   Intel Cap/Rev = 2.0; Nvidia Cap/Rev = 25.0.  The news in Oregon two weeks ago was that 8 VPs of Software and 10 Intel Fellows were axed, AXED, which is a stunning disastrous denouement for Intel's pride.

AMD (recall they have been also-ran to Intel ever since Jerry Sanders got in the infamous legal battle with Intel over rights to second-source Intel forty some years ago) has a market cap of $223 billion, more than 3 TIMES Intel right now.  Their quarterly revenue was $6.8 Billion, with 14% net earnings.  Doing the numbers, AMD Cap/Rev = 10.

So, how about HPE? And, we might ask, IBM and even HPQ.   Recall that it was 2007, when HP hit $120B in annual revenue, and passed IBM as the biggest computer company on the globe?   You don't remember that?   Hummn.

HPE, the builder of this whizbang new "Fastest Computer in the World," had quarterly revenue of $7.8 Billion, and 15% net profit (unheard of profit per HP history), and a market cap of $27.5 Billion.   So HPE is valued at Cap/Rev = 1.0, the worst High Tech story out there for current investors.  What the 'ell?

HPQ market cap is $35 Billion, on quarterly revenue of $14 BIllion, 5% net profit.  So, they have an even worse investment profile than HPE, at Cap/Rev = 0.68.   These, you recall, are the printer and PC guys.

IBM?  Market cap of $198 Billion, just under AMD, and Nvidia is ONLY 17 TIMES bigger.   Their quarterly revenu is $15B, with Negative 2.2% profit.   So their ratio, Cap/Rev = 3.3.

We could go over the Dell and Cisco stories, with similarly glum results.  But, Microsoft, Apple, Google, and friends all seem to be doing okay.  Is there a moral here?  Gawd knows. I don't. 

Anyway, words to the wise at HPE.  TRUMPET YOUR SUCCESS.  Don't let it hide in the fifth sentence of someone else's story.

Logic Analyzer History revisited

 Should have mentioned in the last post that there is a fair amount of material out there, for the seriously interested (or demented?) folk who 'need to know'

For example, the HP 1600A and 1600S were our first “big” logic state analyzers.   Colorado Springs.   See https://www.hpmemoryproject.org/timeline/chuck_house/lsa_birth_03.htm 

There is a book as well, entitled "Permission denied--Odyssey of an Intrapreneur".  As noted in one on-line review, the original version wrongly maligned Biomation's CEO, mis-identifiying with another CEO of the same name who was later found guilty of serious crimes.

 https://www.google.com/search?q=permission+denied+chuck+house&oq=&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCQgBECMYJxjqAjIJCAAQIxgnGOoCMgkIARAjGCcY6gIyCQgCECMYJxjqAjIJCAMQIxgnGOoCMgkIBBAjGCcY6gIyCQgFECMYJxjqAjIJCAYQIxgnGOoCMgkIBxAjGCcY6gLSAQkyNDUzajBqMTWoAgiwAgE&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Another review was much more enthusiastic, writing:  

Miles Kehoe

5.0 out of 5 stars Innovation the 'HP Way'

Reviewed in the United States on August 16, 2014

Verified Purchase

This book gives a great view into the art of being an "intrepreneur', someone who works within a large organization to create skunkworks-type projects and products. It's also a great insiders view of HP when Bill and Dave ran the company, and specifically of the 'instrument divisions'. Chuck, awarded the Medal of Defiance by Dave Packard, talks about what it takes to build an idea into a project and into a successful product - and when it's time to stop.

Chuck introduces productivity and strategy grids to help guide the process. He also introduces the "Intrepreneur's Rulebook", spelling out the seven rules to follow.

Just because the book is aimed at innovation within the context of a large corporation, I think much of it applies to anyone interested in starting a project - or a product company - anywhere. Chuck was an integral part of the HP product divisions that funded all of what HP has become, just at the time when HP became recognized as one of the best managed companies in the world. If you're the least bit interested in innovating inside a large organization or for your own start-up, this book is a must-read.

Logic Analyzer question--Huh?

Atkelar, from Austria, posed the following to John Minck, the self-appointed guardian of the HP Archives first complied by Marc Mislanghe thirty years ago.

Atkelar wrote: "I try to make it short, but my idea is a bit hard to explain without abit of backstory. I recently got my hands on a µLab, HP 5036A, including the manual. Since I already have some other period correct test equipment (almost exclusively HP too) I wanted to make a little "documentary" style presentation of the set of tools and how the early digital days had ideas for tools that not all worked out. I found some info on how these tools were intended to be used, but I couldn't find out a "real reason" why some of these were not working out. It would be nice to have someone's input who "has been there". I am only almost 50 years old, so the 1970s didn't see me with much interest in the inside of electronics :)

I'd especially be interested in contacting somebody who had any hands on contact with "Signature Analysis", "Map Mode of the HP 1600A" - the two diagnostic aids that I assume ended up too cumbersome to keep around.   The logic probe set that includes 545A, 546A, 547A and 548A are also part of the video idea.   My videos have a slightly "different" presentation style, here's the µLab one for reference: https://youtu.be/wwUFyNjO8xA.     Greetings from Austria,

The actual primary question in my mind is: was there ever an official reasoning behind getting rid of "Signature Analysis" and "Map Mode"? My guess is that both of these would have led to quite intense documentation updates with every revision of a circuit and that probably wasn't worth the gain for diagnostics. Logic probes and test clips have most likely fallen victim to the speed of signals, so digital scopes pretty much took over as more versatile options.

I found this question interesting.   I penned, probably too quickly, the following answer:

Atkelar, thanks for your questions re some very old and almost unknown HP logic instrumentation history.   I haven’t thought about those issues in years to be honest.

You are quite right that these features had a high degree of documentation requirement, and it was ever-changing if the circuits were modified in even very simple ways.   But that was not the primary reason the features disappeared, in my view.

I don’t know about any “official reasoning” for getting rid of Signature Analysis (SA) or the HP 1600A map mode, but neither sold very well, and usually that determined the fate for some of HP’s instrument features disappearing.    With respect to Signature Analysis, this was an end-run by Santa Clara division when the Colorado Springs Logic State Analzyers proved more popular than Santa Clara’s Logic Analyzer.   The CS machines, aside from the HP 1645A, were focused on parallel logic, while Santa Clara’s were either node-only or serial data stream analysis.   This at a time that 8 and 16-bit microcontrollers and then microprocessors were becoming popular, which put a premium on a designer understanding parallel data streams.  In fact, although the Santa Clara team would not admit it probably, the Signature Analysis technology was pioneered in my Colorado Springs logic lab by Dan Kolody, whose first product for us was the HP 1620A (see my memoir for a picture of that box, which also sold in very modest quantity).   At the time, Santa Clara’s logic probes and clip were selling somewhat better, and the two divisions were in a bit of a skirmish for ‘charter’.   The prevailing history was that C Springs was an oscilloscope division, getting its brains beaten by Tektronix on a daily basis for nearly two decades, and HP top management wanted them (us, meaning me and my team) to stay focused on Tektronix, never mind the digital world.   And Al Bagley, division manager for Santa Clara, was vocal about his division being the “RIGHT” place for all things digital, but he had already lost the argument for hosting the first Desktop Calculator, and he was adamant that he should have the Logic instrument business.   

The “charter fight” answer by Bill Terry, HP’s VP for instrumentation, was to get HP Labs involved in two aspects—one, choosing the correct letters to portray in the Signature Analysis probe (so if any element of an LED seven-segment display failed, the character would not be mis-recognized), and two, choosing which division should build it.   HPL chose FUCHPL, although they never wrote it that way until we pointed out the clever arrangement of the letters.   And we graciously gave the Signature Analyzer charter to Bagley and team because we concluded it was almost irrelevant to the way test requirements were going to unfold after we modeled the Desktop Calculator ’signatures’ and found out how much work it took to get them node-by-node when no one had time to do that any longer.  So, I don’t think SA ever sold more than a handful of units.   This was at a time that Gate Minimization (Kline-McClusky techniques) were still being taught, and algorithmic design was quite novel and hardly taught anywhere).

The map was invented for the HP1600A, and carried along for several years.   It was a great tool for mapping the issues around memory chip utilization, which for a brief period was an issue when solid-state memory chips were first available, and relatively expensive (i.e. a penny per memory cell, or $10 for a 1,024 bit memory chip).   But the chip memory wars soon produced “free memory” and designers had little need to optimize chip utilization cell-by-cell.  The other thing the map could easily do was portray system execution pathways, which was sometimes valuable when a machine crashed, and you didn’t know what error sent it in the weeds.  The map could indicate, if you had captured it during run-time, the point at which the execution path deviated.    But break-point triggering, especially multiple-depth triggering that soon appeared on the HP 1610A and HP 1615A was a much more effective way to find such issues, so the map was also rendered irrelevant.

I always loved the map, but somewhat as with SA, few people used it, and the “maps” produced were so arcane and obscure in their specificity that very hew designers ever attempted to use them.  We did produce one or two Application notes about their use, but almost never got questions from customers about the mode and its value.

I hope this helps answer the questions you posed.

I dont’ know who could answer this better for you, but I will suggest that Sam Lee, Dan Kolody, or Tom Saponas at HP Colorado Springs would have some information.   All three are still alive, but I don’t have current contact information.    Gary Gordon at HP Santa Clara, one of the most brilliant engineers I've ever known, could also shed light on this, as might Webb McKinney.   I am copying Webb on this, and he may have contact info for some of the others.