80 years ago this gentleman (pictured below) pioneered the use of high-gain dc amplifiers as computer components so enabling analogue computers.

After WWII he set up a company making op amp circuits with vacuum tubes and later, when they became available, with germanium transistors.

Many of the company’s engineers went on the pioneer the analogue IC industry at companies like Linear Tech, National Semiconductor and Analog Devices.

The company’s main competitors were Burr-Brown and Fairchild.

In the 1960s the company was sold to Teledyne.

Moral: Analogue requires genius.