Filipino tech entrepreneur Diosdado “Dado” Banatao died on the age of 79.
Banatao is understood for pioneering the expertise that made private computer systems attainable, thus placing Silicon Valley on the map. He additionally co-founded three expertise corporations and began a nonprofit to assist help Filipinos in STEM fields.
“Rising from humble beginnings in Cagayan, he went on to co-found transformative expertise corporations and performed a pivotal position in advancing the worldwide semiconductor and graphics industries,” mentioned the Nationwide Federation of Filipino American Associations on LinkedIn in honor of Banatao’s passing. “Simply as importantly, he invested deeply in individuals opening doorways, mentoring founders and strengthening communities.”
Based on a submit on his web site by his household, Banatao handed away peacefully on Christmas Day, surrounded by household and pals. His household mentioned he “succumbed to problems from a neurological dysfunction that hit him late in his life.” He would have been 80 in Might.
His household wrote, “We’re mourning his loss, however take consolation from the time spent with him throughout this Christmas season, and that his combat with this illness is over.”
Banatao was born to a rice farmer and housekeeper in Iguig, Cagayan, in keeping with ABS-CBN. Based on his 2015 documentary, he didn’t have entry to electrical energy rising up and was taught math utilizing bamboo sticks. He mentioned it was typical for his classmates to cease going to highschool after sixth grade to assist their mother and father work within the fields, however his father advised him to proceed finding out.
He developed a love for engineering and graduated with a level in electrical engineering from Mapua Institute of Know-how, a non-public analysis college in Manila. He mentioned in his documentary that there have been no design jobs for engineers within the Philippines, so he moved to the U.S. and pursued a grasp’s diploma in electrical engineering and pc science at Stanford College. He graduated in 1972.
Quickly after school, Banatao labored as a design engineering at Boeing. ABS-CBN reported that he then went on to work for different expertise corporations, like Nationwide Semiconductor and Intersil. Whereas at Commodore Worldwide, he designed the primary single chip, 16-bit microprocessor-based calculator.
He’s credited with creating the primary 10-Mbit ethernet CMOS chip in 1981 whereas working at Seeq Know-how. He additionally developed the primary system logic chipset for IBM’s PC-XT and PC-AT and one of many first graphics accelerators for private computer systems. These innovations allowed for quicker pc efficiency, in keeping with Inquirer.web. The Harvard Membership of Southern California credited Banatao for bringing GPS expertise to shoppers.
“Dado is the person who invented a graphical chipset that took us from black screens with inexperienced writing to the dynamic shows we have now right this moment,” the membership wrote for an outline of a lecture he gave in 2017 for the Harvard Enterprise Faculty Affiliation of Orange County.
Banatao based the chipset firm Mostron with a enterprise associate in 1984. One 12 months later, he additionally co-founded Chips and Applied sciences, a graphics adapter firm that Intel later acquired for round $430 million.
The CEO of Intel, Lip-Bu Tan, expressed his grief at Banatao’s passing on LinkedIn, crediting his pal for difficult him when he turned CEO of Cadence Design in 2009.
“I’m perpetually grateful to your problem and encouragement as I proceed my life journey following your footstep as CEO of Cadence Design for 12 years and persevering with as CEO intel,” Tan mentioned in his submit. “Dado, you’re the finest expertise entrepreneur and legend from (the) Philippines.”
He then based S3 Graphics in 1989, which led the native bus idea and developed Home windows accelerator chips, changing into the third-most worthwhile expertise firm in 1993. In 2000, Banatao entered the world of enterprise capital by founding Tallwood Enterprise, a agency targeted on investing in semiconductor expertise, and served as managing associate.
Whereas working at Tallwood in 2011, Banatao advised Bloomberg Information that he inspired his corporations to develop internationally, focusing notably in China, because of better authorities help and decrease manufacturing prices.
“It was that we began corporations right here and we didn’t take into consideration going offshore till we have been considerably massive,” Banatao mentioned when he was 64 at his workplace in Palo Alto. “On the outset now, as we fund the corporate, we take into consideration going exterior instantly.”
Dinakar Munagala, co-founder and CEO at Blaize, Inc., a pc {hardware} producer in El Dorado Hills, wrote on LinkedIn that he was “deeply saddened” by Banatao’s demise.
“Dado was instrumental in shaping Blaize throughout its youth,” Munagala mentioned. “His perception in our mission, regular counsel, and beneficiant spirit left an enduring mark on all of us who had the privilege of studying from him.”
Banatao has obtained a number of awards and recognitions for his contributions, together with the Pamana ng Filipino Award in 1997, Asian Management Award in 1993, and the Ramon V. Del Rosario Award in 2018, in keeping with ABS-CBN. In 2003, the Asian American Actions Middle at Stanford acknowledged Banatao within the college’s Multicultural Alumni Corridor of Fame.
Inquirer.web additionally reported that an institute on the College of California bears his title: the Banatao Institute on the Middle for Info Know-how Analysis within the Curiosity of Society.
Banatao based the Philippine Improvement Science and Know-how Basis, a nonprofit also referred to as PhilDev that gives scholarships, mentorship and coaching applications to younger Filipinos in STEM fields. His household urged individuals to donate to PhilDev in Banatao’s reminiscence.
“We (Filipinos) know hardship,” Banatao mentioned in his documentary. “It’s time we study success.”
Workers author Kyle Martin contributed to this report.
