Jim Williams at his bench. Note the mess.
The Bob Pease book that KD4EBM gave me led me to the Jim Willams book entitled Analog Circuit Design -- Art, Science, and Personalities. I'm only about a quarter of the way through it, but I can already tell that it is great. Get this book. Make room on your shelf.
Jim was the editor, and it is a collection of contibutions made by a many different analog luminaries. Curiously, none of the bios show that there are any hams among them (but the articles of many of them seem to hint at ham radio backgrounds). MIT shows up a lot in the bios. Jim notes in the very first line of the preface that "This is a weird book." He talks about how it came together -- he met with the contributors and each of them pledged NOT to consult with the others about what they would write. Jim notes that the result is "a somewhat discordant book," that "Hopefully would lend courage to someone seeking to do analog work." " The single greatest asset a designer has is self knowledge." "Take what you like, cook it any way you want to, and leave the rest." Indeed.
I found that Jim's own contributions were among those that I liked the most. He writes about "analoggery" and "digital fakery" but then acknowledges that this is a "good natured" controversy. He notes that "no true home is complete without a lab" (a shack?) and that "no lab is complete without an HP series 200 oscillator." His bio reveals that he lived in California with his family and "14 Tektronix oscilloscopes." In a chapter entitled "Should Ohm's Law be Repealed?" Jim describes the very early influence of a neighbor, Dr. Stearn, who owned a Tek 535. It allowed them to see into circuits: "You knew the excitement Leeuwenhoek felt when he looked in his microscope." But that was not always enough: Jim tells how Stearn once successfully troubleshot one of Jim circuits simply by running moistened fingers over circuit while watching the scope.
Tom Hornak also really struck a chord with me. He writes of things that happened in the year "10 BT" (Before Transistors). He talks about how he and a childhood friend had trouble understanding the differences between voltage and current. "We found someone who knew the right answer, but he did not help us too much. Instead of using a simple analog such as a phasor diagram, he started to talk sine and cosine. We accused him of not knowing the answer either, and covering up his ignorance my muttering mumbo-jumbo." Tom explaines: "I know that trying to 'understand electricity' early in life had a lasting benefit to me. I got used to 'seeing electricity' in analogs and I am still seeing it that way. I believe every electronic circuit designer could benefit from thinking in analogs, and it is never too late to start. This belief made me write this chapter."
Barrie Gilbert -- the man credited with inventing the Gilbert Cell (the heart of the NE602) -- has a chapter in the book. He writes of circuits "laid out Manhattan-style" and "built on softwood bases." He hombrewed a very early TV receiver. He tested AF amplifiers "by placing a finger on the grid of the first tube." (We recommended something similar with the SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver, but some builders seemed not to believe that this would work!)
It is undoubtedly a tragedy that we lost both Jim Willams and Bob Pease in June 2011. Jim died of a stroke at age 63; Bob died of a possible heart attack or stroke while driving home from Jim's memorial service. But here we are in 2025 still talking about their work and their books. In a certain sense they live on through their writing. This is a lesson and an inspiration for those of us who sometimes get a bit down by the vagaries of AI and the algorithms: We never know when -- perhaps long after we are gone -- someone might come across something we have written and find inspiration there.
Three cheers for Jim and Bob.
Jim Williams was beyond legend in the EE community. His App Notes were works of art in themselves. For example,
ReplyDelete"App Note 47, "High speed amplifier techniques: A designer's companion for wideband circuitry" (read October 2011, part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, and part 6).
This 132-page app note is Jim's magnum opus, and it contains a wealth of valuable information on high-speed measurement techniques, test equipment, oscilloscope probes, and, of course, applications. It should be required reading for all electronics engineers. Read it twice. Some of the highlights include "Mr. Murphy's gallery of high speed amplifier problems" (pages 7 to 15), "About oscilloscopes" (a gallery of scope and probe responses, pages 20 to 24), and "Breadboarding techniques" (two pictorial tutorials, Figures 62 to 65 and Figures F1 to F25)."
See https://readingjimwilliams.blogspot.com/p/best-app-notes.html
and a great collection of Jim Williams stories here: https://www.edn.com/remembering-jim-williams-5-years-later/
ReplyDeleteIt's so good to see Bob Pease still being mentioned and still an influence in the world of Analog.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Analog, here's a wonderful link to the anthem of the Analog world by Joe Walsh of Eagles fame. Listen to the words!
So True! https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=6YkAnv8inQE&list=OLAK5uy_mGmvMz4_Fa1Yc7v94kfsG7mRryFEWdxkg
Len Sherman and I were EE work-study students under Jim Williams in the early 1970s at MIT. Our collective man cave was room 20B-140, a WWII temporary building that was long ago razed to make way for MIT expansion.
ReplyDeleteThis was during the Vietnam War when making military electronics was akin to a license to print money, so much so that "mil-spec" electronic parts were in short supply.
Electronics distributors like Hamilton Avnet and Wiley would publish half-page ads in industry rags announcing the arrival of scarce parts to panicked purchasing agents: "NO FEAR! MIL-SPEC HERE!" the headlines blared.
This advertising slogan caught Jim's ear, and eventually the ears of all of us in 20B-140.
Whenever Jim killed a circuit board on this bench with too many amps or volts, it wasn't sufficient to simply toss the board into the nearest trash can. He'd smack it with a hammer, stab it with a screwdriver, or stomp on it on Building 20's wooden floor--shouting "NO FEAR! MIL-SPEC HERE!"
I wasn't around the day 35 years later when Jim's doctor told him he'd contracted Parkinsons Disease, but I assure you that Jim's comment was "No fear! mil-spec here!".
Jim Wiliams was a good engineer but his greatest talent was communicating. He was hands down our industry's best story-teller.
I can vouch the accuracy of this post. Here's one photo of the MIT lab's upside down boneyard tree which hung in the middle of the room. Whenever some part had a notable demise, we'd hang it here:
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There are more old pictures from that era here: https://lensprojects.com/analog-history/
Thanks for a great photograph, Len. It shows 20B-140 a tad more ratty than I remember it in 1974, but my standards for workspace cleanliness have changed a bit in 51 years owing to extraneous factors like the fire marshal, OCD bosses, and maybe HR in some instances. Best regards to you from Indianapolis!......Jim Olson
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