Dr. Howard Johnson


 

Some Buddhist monks say that before choosing a mentor one should observe that person for at least ten years. We love that concept, but you probably can't afford the ten years!

Fortunately, 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 shaped 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 success you seek, why not learn from an expert who's really done it? Here's a synopsis of Howard's professional experience:

Salad Days

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 industry.

Corporate Work Experience

1979-1983 Manager of Technology and Advanced development for ROLM Corp., makers 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 has since become Dean of Engineering. After only 21 months of study, the quickest rate of graduation in department history, Howard received only one technical question at his oral examination. He answered so authoritatively no one else asked another.

25 years apprenticeship to Dr. Martin Graham, professor emeritus at U.C. Berkeley and past chairman of the 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).
  • Designed world's first gigabit local-area-network transceivers (Ultra).
  • Conceived data-switching bus architecture for first Internet point-of-presence servers (Ascend).
  • Discovered new Fast Fourier Transform theory (Rice University).
  • Specified architecture for first 10Gbps backplane transceivers at (Accelerant).
  • Conducted original research for high speed power line communication.
  • Served as chief technical editor for Fast and Gigabit Ethernet (IEEE Stds.)

Clients

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

Industry Recognition

It is important that you select a personal mentor widely accepted by other engineers. Dr. Johnson's High-Speed Digital Design seminars 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 three nationally-acclaimed texts. Together, sales exceed 70,000 books, far more than any other works in the field of signal integrity.

EDN Magazine chooses 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. These 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 Digital Engineering Week.

 

About

 

Technical questions and general correspondence:
howie03@sigcon.com

Dr. Johnson receives literally thousands of requests for technical information annually. While he cannot guarantee a timely response to every inquiry, he does his best, time permitting, to respond to technical questions


High-Speed Digital Design

Advanced High-Speed Signal Propagation

High-Speed Noise and Grounding