Computer History Museum

Rhines, Wally (Walden C.) oral history

This oral history with Wally Rhines describes his early years, education, and his career highlights at Texas Instruments and Mentor Graphics. He grew up in Pennsylvania and Florida. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Michigan and obtained a PhD at Stanford University in 1972. He then moved to Texas where he began work on CCD’s at TI. In 1976, he was moved over to manage TI’s struggling DRAM business. Having success there, he later moved on to manage their microprocessor operation, leading the group that developed TI’s very successful DSP products. He eventually managed the entire semiconductor group. However, after realizing he would never have a shot at the CEO position, he decided to make the move to Mentor Graphics in 1993 as CEO—a position he still holds.

Item Details

Date
2012-08-10 (Made)
Type
Document
Catalogue number
102746447
Organization
Computer History Museum (Publisher)
People
Walden C. Rhines (Interviewee)
Eric Dennis (Videographer)
Doug Fairbairn (Interviewer)
Category
Transcript
Extent
36 p.
Place of publication
USA/CA/Mountain View
Language
English
Acquisition number
X6589.2013
Subject
Texas Instruments, Inc. (TI), Semiconductor History, Microprocessor, Electronic Design Automation (EDA), Cadence, Mentor Graphics, Synopsys, DRAM, Mostek
Archive collection
Oral history collection
Archive hierarchy
CHM Oral History Collection