Levy Gerzberg

Last updated
Levy Gerzberg
Born1945
Israel
NationalityIsraeli-American
Education
  • Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (B.Sc., M.Sc.)
  • Stanford University (Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering)
Occupation(s)Businessman, inventor
Known forCo-founding Zoran Corporation
Awards
  • Northern California’s “Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year” (2003)
  • California Israel Chamber of Commerce International Partnership Award (2004)
  • Inductee, Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame (2014)

Levy Gerzberg (born 1945) is an Israeli-American [1] businessman and inventor, known for co-founding Zoran Corporation. [2] Zoran pioneered directly and via acquisitions the design and marketing of system on a chip (SoC) technology and devices which operate many consumer electronic products. These include Digital Cameras, DVD Players, DVRs, HDTV sets, set-top boxes, Home Theaters, Printers, Digital Tuners, and more.

Contents

Early life

Born in Israel, he attended the Technion, Israel's Institute of Technology, earning a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in medical electronics. He moved to the United States in 1972 and earned a Ph.D in electrical engineering from Stanford University. [2] He was a doctoral student of integrated circuitry pioneer James D. Meindl.

Career

He began his career as an associate director of Stanford’s Electronics Laboratory. In 1981, he co-founded Zoran Corporation in Silicon Valley. Zoran is the Hebrew word for silicon. The founders conceived of integrating the digital signal processing (DSP) components of electronic system on a single silicon chip that would later be known as (SoC). The company initially created silicon chips and software for medical, industrial and military markets. Recognizing the new digital age, Gerzberg switched to designing chips and software for consumer electronics. The company’s first consumer product was a credit-card sized digital camera SoC that was used in the world’s first fully digital camera, Fujifilm’s FUJIX DS-1P. The technology was later used by many manufacturers, including Kodak, Konica, Minolta, Nikon, Pentax, Samsung, Sony, Olympus, and others. Under Gerzberg’s leadership, the company created digital camera technology, which features became mainstream, such as displaying high-resolution photos from a digital camera on an HDTV via an HDMI connection, direct printing from a camera to a printer without a personal computer, image and video stabilization, lens distortion correction, and integrating advanced camera technology on mobile devices. [3] Gerzberg led company efforts to create SoCs including those that standardized Dolby digital audio in DVD players as well as movie and home theater systems, and more. The company was involved with digital video, audio, television, cameras, and printing as well as set-top boxes. [2] [4] Under Gerzberg's leadership, Zoran created the successful processor for DVD players and other gadgets with about 35% market share. Its Camera on a Chip (COACH) line of digital camera processors was also popular. [5]

Zoran's headquarters were in Silicon Valley, CA and had development and marketing centers in the U.S., China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom. Gerzberg was President and CEO of Zoran from 1981 to 1985. He served as Executive Vice President and CTO from 1985 to 1987. Gerzberg was President and CEO From 1988 until 2011. [4] [6] The company went public in 1995, the stock traded on the NASDAQ (ZRAN). Semiconductor maker CSR on Nasdaq and on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) purchased Zoran in 2011. [7]

Gerzberg holds 10 U.S. Patents, and Zoran’s inventions have accounted for more than 1,000 patents. [2] [8] He authored or co-authored more than 50 technical papers about the design of integrated circuits, device physics and fabrication, digital signal processing and related applications. [9]

Gerzberg founded the Liora and Levy Gerzberg Family Foundation which contributes to a variety of healthcare and educational causes. [10] He is a trustee of the Consumer Technology Association Foundation and is on the Board of the American Friends of the Rambam Medical Center. Gerzberg served two-terms on the CEA Board of Industry Leaders. [11]

An avid open-water swimmer, Gerzberg founded the “Swim From the Heart” swim meet in Haifa, Israel that raises money to support research to treat Sudden Cardiac Death in Children. [12] He also has swum from Alcatraz Island to San Francisco dozens of times, frequently raising money for children’s charities. [13]

Awards

In 2003, Gerzberg was named Northern California’s “Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year” in the semiconductor category. [14] In 2004, he received the California Israel Chamber of Commerce International Partnership Award. In 2007 he was elected to a seat on the Board of Industry Leaders of the Consumer Electronics Association. [15] In 2014, he was inducted to the Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame. [16] [17]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Integrated circuit</span> Electronic circuit formed on a small, flat piece of semiconductor material

An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip, computer chip, or simply chip, is a small electronic device made up of multiple interconnected electronic components such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors. These components are etched onto a small piece of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Integrated circuits are used in a wide range of electronic devices, including computers, smartphones, and televisions, to perform various functions such as processing and storing information. They have greatly impacted the field of electronics by enabling device miniaturization and enhanced functionality.

Silicon on sapphire (SOS) is a hetero-epitaxial process for metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing that consists of a thin layer of silicon grown on a sapphire wafer. SOS is part of the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) family of CMOS technologies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CSR plc</span> 1998–2015 British fabless semiconductor company

CSR plc was a multinational fabless semiconductor company headquartered in Cambridge, United Kingdom. Its main products were connectivity, audio, imaging and location chips. CSR was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index until it was acquired by Qualcomm in August 2015. Under Qualcomm's ownership, the company was renamed Qualcomm Technologies International, Ltd.

Cirrus Logic Inc. is an American fabless semiconductor supplier that specializes in analog, mixed-signal, and audio DSP integrated circuits (ICs). Since 1998, the company's headquarters have been in Austin, Texas.

Zoran Corporation was a multinational digital technology company, founded in 1981 and headquartered in Silicon Valley, that was predominantly focused on designing and selling SoC integrated circuits for consumer electronics applications. The name Zoran is derived from the Hebrew word for silicon. Zoran was incorporated in the state of Delaware and had offices in Canada, China, England, Germany, India, Israel, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and the US. Zoran had strong ties with Israel, with a strong R&D presence and being the beneficiary of incentives from organizations such as Israel's Ministry of Industry and Trade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Image sensor</span> Device that converts images into electronic signals

An image sensor or imager is a sensor that detects and conveys information used to form an image. It does so by converting the variable attenuation of light waves into signals, small bursts of current that convey the information. The waves can be light or other electromagnetic radiation. Image sensors are used in electronic imaging devices of both analog and digital types, which include digital cameras, camera modules, camera phones, optical mouse devices, medical imaging equipment, night vision equipment such as thermal imaging devices, radar, sonar, and others. As technology changes, electronic and digital imaging tends to replace chemical and analog imaging.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Color filter array</span>

In digital imaging, a color filter array (CFA), or color filter mosaic (CFM), is a mosaic of tiny color filters placed over the pixel sensors of an image sensor to capture color information.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SiRF</span>

SiRF Technology, Inc. was a pioneer in the commercial use of GPS technology for consumer applications. The company was founded in 1995 and was headquartered in San Jose, California. Notable and founding members included Sanjai Kohli, Dado Banatao, and Kanwar Chadha. The company was acquired by British firm CSR plc in 2009, who were in turn subsequently acquired by American company Qualcomm on 13 August 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Serial Digital Video Out</span> Proprietary Intel technology

Serial Digital Video Out (SDVO) is a proprietary Intel technology introduced with their 9xx-series of motherboard chipsets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cadence Design Systems</span> American multinational computational software company

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. is an American multinational technology and computational software company. Headquartered in San Jose, California, Cadence was formed in 1988 through the merger of SDA Systems and ECAD. Initially specialized in electronic design automation (EDA) software for the semiconductor industry, currently the company makes software and hardware for designing products such as integrated circuits, systems on chips (SoCs), printed circuit boards, and pharmaceutical drugs, also licensing intellectual property for the electronics, aerospace, defense and automotive industries, among others.

Faroudja Labs was a San Francisco–based IP and research company founded by Yves Faroudja. Faroudja Labs shouldn't be confused with Faroudja Enterprises, Yves Faroudja's latest venture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Active cable</span>

Active cables are copper cables used for data transmission that use an electronic circuit to boost their performance. Without an electronic circuit, a cable is considered passive. Passive cables are prone to data degradation from channel impairments, including attenuation, crosstalk, and group velocity distortion. In active cables, a circuit using one or several integrated circuits is embedded in the cable to compensate for some or all of these impairments. This active boosting allows cables to be more compact, thinner, longer, and to transmit data faster than passive cables.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elron Electronic Industries</span> Israeli technology holding company

Elron Electronic Industries is an Israeli technology holding company based in Tel Aviv; since 1962 the company has been involved in setting up, funding and developing over 30 companies and is considered one of the foundation stones of the high-tech industry in Israel. The company's sectors of interest include clean technology, software, semiconductors, medical technology, telecommunications, defence and aerospace. Today, the combined annual revenues of the companies established by Elron are approximately $5 billion.

Himax Technologies, Inc. is a fabless semiconductor manufacturer headquartered in Tainan City, Taiwan founded on 12 June 2001. The company is publicly traded and listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol HIMX. Himax Technologies Limited functions as a holding under the Cayman Islands Companies Law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Back-illuminated sensor</span> Type of digital image sensor

A back-illuminated sensor, also known as backside illumination (BI) sensor, is a type of digital image sensor that uses a novel arrangement of the imaging elements to increase the amount of light captured and thereby improve low-light performance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sensory, Inc.</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ami Miron</span> American Israeli entrepreneur and technology developer

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Gurtej Singh Sandhu, also known as Gurtej Sandhu, is an inventor in the fields of thin-film processes and materials, VLSI and semiconductor device fabrication. He is recognized for being the all-time seventh most prolific inventor as measured by number of U.S. utility patents. Gurtej has 1382 U.S. utility patents as of October 19, 2021. He was Senior Fellow and Director of Advanced Technology Developments at Micron Technology, before becoming Senior Fellow and Vice President of Micron Technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victor B. Lawrence</span>

Victor B. Lawrence is a Ghanaian-American engineer credited with seminal contributions in digital signal processing for multimedia communications. During his 30-plus-year tenure at Bell Laboratories, Dr. Lawrence made extensive and fundamental personal contributions to voice, data, audio and video communications. He led numerous projects that significantly improved or enhanced every phase in the evolution of early low-speed and today's high-speed data communications. He is a Research Professor and Director of the Center for Intelligent Networked Systems (iNetS) at Stevens Institute of Technology, where he also served as Associate Dean. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2016. He is a Member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the IEEE for contributions to the understanding of quantization effects in digital signal processors and the applications of digital signal processing to data communications, a Fellow of AT&T Bell Labs, and a Charter Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.

References

  1. ↑ Alix Wall (Sep 13, 2013). "From Israel to Alcatraz, 68-year-old is in the swim". J. The Jewish News of Northern California . Retrieved 2019-10-18.
  2. 1 2 3 4 No Author (November–December 2014). "CE Hall of Fame". It Is Innovation (I3) Magazine. Retrieved 28 Apr 2021.{{cite news}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  3. ↑ Shapiro, Gary (2011). The Comeback. New York, NY USA: Beaufort Books. p. 185. ISBN   978-0825305627.
  4. 1 2 Stevens, Cindy Loffler (March–April 2011). "Zoran's Dr. Levy Gerzberg". Consumer Electronics Vision. Retrieved 28 Apr 2021.
  5. ↑ Bajarin, Tim (2009-11-09). "The Future of PC and Mobile Processors". PC Magazine.
  6. ↑ "Levy Gerzberg, Zoran Corp: Profile and Biography". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  7. ↑ Robinson, Gwen (21 Feb 2011). "CSR buys Zoran for $679m". Financial Times. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
  8. ↑ "Levy Gerzberg Inventions, Patents and Patent Applications - Justia Patents Search". patents.justia.com. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  9. ↑ "Gerzberg, Levy". The Wall Street Transcript. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  10. ↑ ProPublica, Mike Tigas, Sisi Wei, Ken Schwencke, Brandon Roberts, Alec Glassford (9 May 2013). "Liora And Levy Gerzberg Family Foundation, Full Filing - Nonprofit Explorer". ProPublica. Retrieved 2021-04-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. ↑ "Board of Trustees". www.cta.tech. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  12. ↑ RAMBAM, American Friends of (2018-05-25). "Swim from the Heart". American Friends of Rambam Medical Center. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  13. ↑ Wall, Alix (2013-09-13). "From Israel to Alcatraz, 68-year-old is in the swim". J. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  14. ↑ "Board of Directors - Levy Grzberg." CSR PLC. CSR, n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2015. <http://www.csr.com/investor-centre/board-of-directors Archived 2015-04-13 at archive.today >
  15. ↑ "Zoran Corporations CEO Dr. Levy Gerzberg Serving on Consumer Electronics Associations Board of Industry Leaders". Lexdon Business Library. 2007-01-29. Retrieved 2013-09-24.
  16. ↑ www.bizjournals.com https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/potmsearch/detail/submission/2800281/Dr_Levy_Gerzberg . Retrieved 2021-04-28.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  17. ↑ "Levy Gerzberg, Zoran Corp: Profile and Biography". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2021-04-28.


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