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Electronic News interviews Novellus's Mr. Smarty Pants, Rick Hill |
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Aug 17, 2007 at 12:52 PM |
Few semiconductor equipment head honchos could have had a career in stand-up comedy or talk radio, but Novellus's Rick Hill may be an exception.
He has a quick, sometimes acidic (corrosive even) wit to go with his rather large ego and proven business chops. But he has just enough self-deprecation to keep things relatively honest. At least most of the time.
An interesting interview with Rick posted today on Electronic News/EDN's site, which finds Mr. Smarty Pants still capable of spinning off quips rich with his trademark smirky snark. Here are some examples.
"To me, the solar cell business feels like a fad business." (Chip Shots comment: And global warming and peak oil are just trends, right Rick?)
"Applied has largely turned into a service company, not a technology company, in the semiconductor business. They've largely written it off as a growth business." (Chip Shots comment: Rick rarely misses an opportunity to stick it to Applied, even when he's wrong.)
"It's a long way from the university to the real world. They have great ideas, but they don't have to make money. They write papers." (Chip Shots comment: Since when is Silicon Valley the real world?)
"Self-assembly is a nice concept, but making order out of disorder is a tough task." (Chip Shots comment: Self-assembly does not fit into Novellus's business plan---disorder and Rick do not play well together.)
"High-k gate is the biggest gain, and hafnium oxide is half the way there." (Chip Shots comment: Does this mean the HKMG glass is half full?)
"We pulled out early from the high-k gate tantalum oxide and barium strontium titanate. These are materials that you heard about in a Superman comic book." (Chip Shots comment: Actually, that was the kryptonite oxide.)
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