One of the most famous yarns in the history of the chip industry is told about Kazuo Iwama of Sony who was the brother-in-law of Sony founder Akio Morita, and Morita’s successor as president of Sony.
In 1969 Bell Labs invented the CCD. Shortly after the invention, Iwama visited Bell Labs and was fascinated by the device.
At that time he held the job of President of Sony America but, in 1972, he returned to Japan to be deputy president of Sony and Morita's anointed successor.
The following year he started a project to work on CCDs with the aim of developing it to the point where it could be used to capture images in a consumer video camera.
It was much more difficult than anyone had imagined. The project dragged on, and on. At every board meeting Iwama was asked: "When are you going to get a return on the investment in CCD?" His invariable response was: "Maybe not while I'm alive."
He was right. In 1985 Sony produced the first camcorder using a CCD.
Iwama had died in 1982.
The CCD camcorder was a huge success. Sony made a killing in a market it had all to itself for over a year.
Iwama was accorded an unusual tribute. In the granite tombstone on his grave there is embedded a CCD
Subscribe to this blog's feed