文章基本信息

标题：Top 25 High Tech Leaders in Dallas: Tom Engibous, The
作者：Talkington, Mario
期刊名称：D Magazine
出版年度：2001
卷号：Jul 01, 2001
出版社：Magazine Limited Partners

Top 25 High Tech Leaders in Dallas: Tom Engibous, The

Talkington, Mario

EVEN AS ECONOMISTS TRY TO DETERMINE WHETHER THE ECONOMY IS CORRECTING ITSELF or heading for recession, the technology industry-the sector hit hardest by the stock market declinemarches forward resolutely. Tech leaders aren't puzzling over the meaning of each day's Wall Street rise or fall; they're too busy looking down the road-as in 25 years or so. And their forward-thinking optimism isn't a forced smile amid all the doom and gloom. Quite the contrary: they're leaders precisely because of their relentless optimism, their determination to reshape the way people work and play-and turn Dallas into Silicon Prairie in the process. Even if economic uncertainty has us unsure where we're headed, you can bet that these are the people who will get us there.

Chairman, president, and CEO, Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments, the world's leading maker of computer chips for mobile phones, has found the sweet spot. "The two most important technologies for the Internet age are real-time signal processing, or DSP, and analog semiconductors. We're the world's leader in both," says Tom Engibous, who has spent his entire 25-year career at TI. "We're building the brains ... for the mobile Internet generation. We have the opportunity to be the semiconductor company of this decade, much like Intel was in the last decade."

The Dallas-based company, which dominated chips for personal computers in the 1980s, is hell-bent on keeping its lead this time around, pouring $1.6 billion annually into R&D for DSP and analog, unveiling a new technology called Optical Wireless Solutions that cuts the cost and complexity of high-speed data rates for optical networking, and investing $100 million over the next 18 months in startups with killer apps for the mobile Internet. "When you're the leader, it's easier to widen the gap between you and your competitors when the economy is tough," he says. "People who aren't totally focused in DSP and analog generally cut back on their investment. The strong get stronger, and the weak get weaker."