RIP Barrie Gilbert

[Steve Goldstein]

The brilliant and prolific circuit designer Barrie Gilbert, holder of
over 100 US patents, who was perhaps best know for a circuit block
that carries his name, passed away yesterday after a fall. Among
Barrie's better known achievements was the development of the analog
display readout employed in the Tektronix 7000 series scopes, the
discovery and elucidation of the "Translinear Principle", and the
invention of the Gilbert cell, a high-speed analog multiplier
technique still in wide use. He was in his early 80s, and had been
employed for over 40 years at Analog Devices. He was one of ADI's
first Analog Devices Fellows. Over his career he designed a
succession of top-selling products for ADI, some of which had product
lifetimes measured in decades. He was an absolutely brilliant
designer, and had the most intuitive feel for transistor operation of
anyone I've ever met. He was also a warm and generous person, more
than willing to share his knowledge with anyone with a willingness to
learn. I will always be grateful for his encouragement back when I
joined ADI in 1982, and for a clever bandgap circuit of his (never
published, but disseminated within ADI) that was just the think I
needed in one of my IC designs some years ago.

R.I.P. Barrie

 

His work made my work much easier. Some of our products very much relied on his log amp designs. Not just the log output but the compressed IF was essential to us.

 

[Winfield Hill]

Steve Goldstein wrote...

The brilliant and prolific circuit designer Barrie Gilbert, holder of
over 100 US patents, who was perhaps best know for a circuit block
that carries his name, passed away yesterday after a fall. Among
Barrie's better known achievements was the development of the analog
display readout employed in the Tektronix 7000 series scopes, the
discovery and elucidation of the "Translinear Principle", and the
invention of the Gilbert cell, a high-speed analog multiplier
technique still in wide use. He was in his early 80s, and had been
employed for over 40 years at Analog Devices. He was one of ADI's
first Analog Devices Fellows. Over his career he designed a
succession of top-selling products for ADI, some of which had product
lifetimes measured in decades. He was an absolutely brilliant
designer, and had the most intuitive feel for transistor operation of
anyone I've ever met. He was also a warm and generous person, more
than willing to share his knowledge with anyone with a willingness to
learn. I will always be grateful for his encouragement back when I
joined ADI in 1982, and for a clever bandgap circuit of his (never
published, but disseminated within ADI) that was just the think I
needed in one of my IC designs some years ago.

R.I.P. Barrie

I'm so sad, another one gone. One of the best.


--
Thanks,
- Win

 

[Bill Sloman]

On Saturday, February 1, 2020 at 11:09:15 AM UTC+11, Steve Goldstein wrote:

The brilliant and prolific circuit designer Barrie Gilbert, holder of
over 100 US patents, who was perhaps best know for a circuit block
that carries his name, passed away yesterday after a fall. Among
Barrie's better known achievements was the development of the analog
display readout employed in the Tektronix 7000 series scopes, the
discovery and elucidation of the "Translinear Principle", and the
invention of the Gilbert cell, a high-speed analog multiplier
technique still in wide use. He was in his early 80s, and had been
employed for over 40 years at Analog Devices. He was one of ADI's
first Analog Devices Fellows. Over his career he designed a
succession of top-selling products for ADI, some of which had product
lifetimes measured in decades. He was an absolutely brilliant
designer, and had the most intuitive feel for transistor operation of
anyone I've ever met. He was also a warm and generous person, more
than willing to share his knowledge with anyone with a willingness to
learn. I will always be grateful for his encouragement back when I
joined ADI in 1982, and for a clever bandgap circuit of his (never
published, but disseminated within ADI) that was just the think I
needed in one of my IC designs some years ago.

R.I.P. Barrie

He was up there with Bob Widlar, and outlasted him by quite a bit.

It's a sad loss.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

 

[John Miles, KE5FX]

On Friday, January 31, 2020 at 4:09:15 PM UTC-8, Steve Goldstein wrote:

I will always be grateful for his encouragement back when I joined
ADI in 1982, and for a clever bandgap circuit of his (never published,
but disseminated within ADI) that was just the think I needed in one
of my IC designs some years ago.

R.I.P. Barrie

Unfortunate week for Tektronix alumni. First Stan Griffiths, and now
Barrie. I will say I'm glad to hear it was a fall and not one of the
usual horrific lingering illnesses that seem to overtake a lot of people
at that age. He was active and engaged with life right up to the end --
in fact, I believe he was in the process of getting a new house built,
or had just finished it.

I had the pleasure of meeting Barrie only a couple of times, the first
being when a mutual friend invited me over to his house several years
ago to demonstrate a new gadget ( https://bit.ly/2Sc7IIq ) for some
other friends of his. Barrie was one of those in attendance, so I found
myself in the awkward position of teaching my grandmother to suck eggs.
He invited me down to Analog Devices' development office in Oregon to
demo the TimePod to his employees and colleagues, but sadly I never worked
up the chutzpah to take him up on the offer.

Which was just stupid, as you couldn't hope to meet a more humble,
approachable guy, with or without 100 patents and multiple distinguished
fellowships to his name. Kicking myself bigtime that I never got to know
him better.

-- john, KE5FX

 

On Friday, January 31, 2020 at 9:47:13 PM UTC-5, Bill Sloman wrote:

On Saturday, February 1, 2020 at 11:09:15 AM UTC+11, Steve Goldstein wrote:
The brilliant and prolific circuit designer Barrie Gilbert, holder of
over 100 US patents, who was perhaps best know for a circuit block
that carries his name, passed away yesterday after a fall. Among
Barrie's better known achievements was the development of the analog
display readout employed in the Tektronix 7000 series scopes, the
discovery and elucidation of the "Translinear Principle", and the
invention of the Gilbert cell, a high-speed analog multiplier
technique still in wide use. He was in his early 80s, and had been
employed for over 40 years at Analog Devices. He was one of ADI's
first Analog Devices Fellows. Over his career he designed a
succession of top-selling products for ADI, some of which had product
lifetimes measured in decades. He was an absolutely brilliant
designer, and had the most intuitive feel for transistor operation of
anyone I've ever met. He was also a warm and generous person, more
than willing to share his knowledge with anyone with a willingness to
learn. I will always be grateful for his encouragement back when I
joined ADI in 1982, and for a clever bandgap circuit of his (never
published, but disseminated within ADI) that was just the think I
needed in one of my IC designs some years ago.

R.I.P. Barrie

He was up there with Bob Widlar, and outlasted him by quite a bit.

It's a sad loss.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

Guys like Bob Widlar kind of fascinate me. I will probably not convey this well... but he had a personality and lifestyle that under most circumstances would result in a generally failed life....but at the exact moment in time he had the exact right personality and insight to propel this new technology forward. I think many people would love to be an expert at something and then be able to run off and party for months on end and then come right back and do his stuff and keep succeeding. I suppose during his off time he was thinking about this stuff.....but how many people get to live such a fruitful and unconventional life.

 

[Bill Sloman]

On Sunday, February 2, 2020 at 10:04:57 AM UTC+11, blo...@columbus.rr.com wrote:

On Friday, January 31, 2020 at 9:47:13 PM UTC-5, Bill Sloman wrote:
On Saturday, February 1, 2020 at 11:09:15 AM UTC+11, Steve Goldstein wrote:
The brilliant and prolific circuit designer Barrie Gilbert, holder of
over 100 US patents, who was perhaps best know for a circuit block
that carries his name, passed away yesterday after a fall. Among
Barrie's better known achievements was the development of the analog
display readout employed in the Tektronix 7000 series scopes, the
discovery and elucidation of the "Translinear Principle", and the
invention of the Gilbert cell, a high-speed analog multiplier
technique still in wide use. He was in his early 80s, and had been
employed for over 40 years at Analog Devices. He was one of ADI's
first Analog Devices Fellows. Over his career he designed a
succession of top-selling products for ADI, some of which had product
lifetimes measured in decades. He was an absolutely brilliant
designer, and had the most intuitive feel for transistor operation of
anyone I've ever met. He was also a warm and generous person, more
than willing to share his knowledge with anyone with a willingness to
learn. I will always be grateful for his encouragement back when I
joined ADI in 1982, and for a clever bandgap circuit of his (never
published, but disseminated within ADI) that was just the think I
needed in one of my IC designs some years ago.

R.I.P. Barrie

He was up there with Bob Widlar, and outlasted him by quite a bit.

It's a sad loss.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

Guys like Bob Widlar kind of fascinate me. I will probably not convey this well... but he had a personality and lifestyle that under most circumstances would result in a generally failed life....but at the exact moment in time he had the exact right personality and insight to propel this new technology forward. I think many people would love to be an expert at something and then be able to run off and party for months on end and then come right back and do his stuff and keep succeeding. I suppose during his off time he was thinking about this stuff.....but how many people get to live such a fruitful and unconventional life.

He died at 54. Barrie Gilbert made it to 80. The fact that Widlar was brilliant at what he did whenever he was sober enough to do it, is undeniable.

If he'd spent less time running off and partying, he probably could have moved the field quite a bit further forward, but if he'd been that worried by other peoples opinions he would probably have had fewer ground-breaking ideas.

There are lots of different ways of being clever, and a whole lot more different ways of being slightly less clever.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney