Last week, Herb Reiter shared the sad news with me that it was time for him to listen to his wife and doctor and retire fully. The blog post about EDPS 2020 was his swansong. I’m not quite sure what we will do without his voice on 3D InCites, but we’re going to have to try.
I can’t even remember exactly when I met Herb Reiter. I just feel like he’s always been a part of 3D InCites. If I had to guess, it was at one of the 3D Architectures for Semiconductor Integration and Packaging (3D ASIP) Symposiums that used to take place each December in Burlingame, CA. I actually searched through Herb’s archives to figure out how long he’s been a regular blogger. Turns out he joined us in August of 2013, and his first post was about MEMCON 2013.
A self-proclaimed 3D evangelist, Herb carved out his own niche with his blog, 3D In Context, covering industry events and writing about them through the lens of an electric design automation (EDA) expert. Over the past seven years, he has contributed a total of 132 blogs. You can find them all here.
But blogging to share his message about the importance of the collaboration between the design and manufacturing community to realize heterogeneous integration was only part of Herb’s role at 3D InCites. He has also been a dedicated advisory board member, offering guidance and participating in 3D InCites Awards. But mostly, he’s been a good business partner and friend – from airport pickups to chauffeur and courier services (storing our pop-up and about 300 issues of The Yearbook stored in his garage), to brainstorming lunches. Herb always goes the extra mile and knows what it means to be a member of this community.
I’ll never forget the time we both attended the 3D TSV Summit in Grenoble and were heading home to the US. We both had early morning flights back from Paris and were scheduled on different trains from Grenoble to Paris. He was taking the TGV directly to the airport, and I was booked on a regional to Gare de Lyon, where I had to transfer to the metro to get out to the airport. It was about 10 pm when I boarded the packed metro train. Looking ahead one car, I noticed a rather tall gentleman wearing a flat cap who looked rather familiar. In my oh-so-ladylike manner, I shouted “HERB!” and pushed my way through the crowd to join him. He had disembarked the TGV one station too soon and somehow ended up on the same metro car as me. What are the chances? By the time we got to the airport, it was about midnight. I was booked into a nearby hotel. Herb waited with me to make sure I got safely on the hotel shuttle before taking his leave. Like I said – he’s a real gentleman. I’m going to miss him!
Herb Reiter’s Final Blog Post
I asked Herb if he would like to say anything about his life in the semiconductor industry, and this is what he sent me:
Exactly 50 years ago I started my career at Siemens in Munich. I designed a “high-speed” transceiver board with discrete components for signaling at 50 Bits/sec for about 20 miles over telephone wires. A big chunk of money for my patents from Siemens and developing communications and data-logging systems financed my MBA studies in Austria.
The international character of the semiconductor industry attracted me to join National Semiconductor’s ASIC marketing team, then VLSI Technology. Realizing that ASIC designers must have good design software encouraged me to join a small EDA company,ViewLogic.
After this company was acquired by Synopsys, I found myself with a healthy dose of international character managing 25 excellent engineers worldwide to bring timing analysis methodology (PrimeTime) and Fabless & Foundry design infrastructure (TSMC Reference Flows) to IDMs and fabless semiconductor vendors.
After a short experience in the .com world (Barcelona Design), I founded my own company (eda 2 asic Consulting, Inc) to bring software & IC design experts closer together with IC manufacturing & test experts and their equipment and materials suppliers.
In this missionary role, Francoise has been an excellent partner for me. I want to wish her and our many friends in this dynamic and challenging industry all the best. Please keep working to make electronic systems smarter, faster, smaller, cheaper and extend their battery life – to continue what we have done in the last 50 years! ~ Herb
