Dr. Howard Johnson

If you are reading this page because you care about the quality of your information sources and want top-notch advice, that's a good thing.

The best way to evaluate a consultant is through personal references. Ask around. Having taught more than 10,000 students, and sold more than 70,000 books, there is a good chance someone you know can tell you about Dr. Johnson and his capabilities.

Alternately, you may find that you already know Dr. Johnson through his product accomplishments.

For example, do you use voicemail?

In 1979 Howard invented PhoneMail, the first integrated voice messaging system. He created the voice compression algorithms, the product architecture and basic feature set, all of which are still used today in numerous products worldwide.

Do you use Ethernet?

In 1993 and again in 1996 Howard was elected by the IEEE as chief technical editor of Ethernet standards. In those key roles he helped shape the Fast and Gigabit Ethernet standards we all enjoy today. The standards literally came right out of his computer.

If that's the kind of product success you seek, why not learn from an expert who's really done it?

Early Engineering Experience

1973 T.V. repair man

1974 Designed and built his first full-fledged computer out of SSI logic.

1978 Earned MEE degree at Rice University while managing the EE lab and designing instruments for the oil drilling industry.

Corporate Work Experience

1979-1983 Manager of Technology and Advanced development for ROLM Corp., manufacturers of the first all-digital phone system designed after the breakup of AT&T. ROLM was subsequently acquired by IBM.

1984-1988 Director of Engineering at U.S. TeleCenters.

1988-1989 Manager of Technology and Advanced Development at Ultra Network Technologies.

1989-today Professional consultant to corporations, universities and governmental organizations worldwide.

Professional Training

1982 PhD., Rice University, Department of Electrical Engineering, under Sidney Burrus, who since became Dean of Engineering. Howard was awarded his PhD after only 21 months of graduate study, the quickest rate of graduation in department history. 

25 years apprenticeship to Dr. Martin Graham, professor emeritus at U.C. Berkeley and past chairman of the Berkeley EE department. Dr. Graham was making computers out of tubes before Howard was born. Martin has been Howard's mentor since 1982.

Howard's areas of expertise include DSP software, high-speed data transmission, hot-plugging backplane architectures, and multimedia communication systems. He is an expert witness qualified to testify on the subject of computer architecture, and the primary inventor of numerous patents.

Technology Success

Dr. Johnson's greatest strength is the pioneering development of new technologies:

• Invented Phonemail (ROLM).
• Created traveling-wave bus architecture for digital telephone branch exchange (IBM).
• Designed world's first gigabit local-area-network transceivers (Ultra Network Technologies).
• Conceived data-switching bus architecture for early Internet point-of-presence servers (Ascend Corp.).
• Embellished the Fast Fourier Transform theory for prime and compound prime lengths (Rice University).
• Specified architecture for first 10-Gbps backplane transceivers  (Accelerant Networks).
• Conducted original research for data-over-power-line communication (Echelon).
• Served as chief technical editor for Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet LAN standards (IEEE 802.3)

Clients

Who relies on Dr. Johnson's advice? Here is a short list: Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, IBM, Apple, Microsoft, Cisco, Motorola, Northern Telecom, Tektronix, LeCroy, Agilent, Micron, Lockheed, Raytheon, General Dynamics, NASA, and BAE Systems.

Industry Recognition

It is important that you select a personal mentor widely accepted by other engineers. Dr. Johnson's High-Speed Digital Designseminars reach over 1,000 engineers annually. Companies all over the world recognize his seminars as the best available courses for signal integrity engineers and high-speed digital designers.

His High-Speed Digital Design Newsletter boasts a subscription of more than 10,000 engineers. Archived copies of his newsletter and other articles (300+) are the most often-perused sections of this site.

An engaging and informative author, Dr. Johnson has written two nationally-acclaimed texts. Together, sales exceed 70,000 books, more than any other works in the field of signal integrity.

• High-Speed Digital Design: A Handbook of Black Magic
• High-Speed Signal Propagation: More Black Magic

EDN magazinechose Dr. Johnson as their featured Signal Integrity columnist. These columns reach about 160,000 readers monthly.

Oxford University Relationship

Dr. Johnson regularly teaches seminars at sites worldwide, including courses for Oxford University in the U.K.

Since 1994, his Oxford courses have consistently ranked as the most popular summer engineering courses ever delivered in the Oxford extension learning program. The Oxford summer engineering courses are available in open forums to engineers throughout Europe, regardless of their prior affiliation with the University.

In recognition of his outstanding contribution to engineering education, in July of 2000 Oxford awarded Dr. Johnson a three-year Visiting Fellowship during part of which he resided at the University, worked with undergraduates, and laid the groundwork for the enormously popular High-Speed Engineering Week at Oxford, featuring its flagship course, High-Speed Digital Design - Oxford University.