Suhas Patil is regarded as among the most erudite technopreneurs in Silicon Valley. Dr Patil is the founder and chairman emeritus of Cirrus Logic Inc., a leading semiconductor company, with revenues close to a billion dollars.

For years he was an assistant professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and later associate professor of computer science at the University of Utah. At University of Utah, Patil’s research reached a stage where "either somebody had to adopt it and take it further, and that’s what I was seeking," he once told an interviewer. That somebody happened to be General Instrument Corporation, which had also funded some of his earlier research. With the funding, Patil completed work on a software that automated very large scale integration (VLSI) design. The technology permitted even those not trained in silicon technologies to design integrated circuits in six months, a revolutionary step forward in the 1980s.

Although in 1981 Patil started Patil Systems, just three years later he joined hands with Mike Hackworth to found Cirrus Logic. When the Santa Clara Historical Association published the book The Making of Silicon Valley: A 100-year Renaissance, it counted Cirrus Logic among the companies that shaped the valley. The company has since lost its luster, perhaps overtaken by the furious pace of technology’s march. Its stock price is at a level it had already reached in 1993. Patil has also stepped aside from the management of the company, and holds the position of chairman emeritus.

Patil was born in Jamshedpur in 1944 and grew up with a strong interest in technology and science. He earned his MSc degree in electrical engineering from MIT in 1967 and received his Doctor of Science degree in electrical engineering from MIT in 1970. Dr Patil is the recipient of many awards of recognition from community organizations for his contributions to the community.

Dr Patil was the founding president of the non-profit organization, The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE). TiE soon became an effective and respected organization nurturing and mentoring entrepreneurs and young companies. Still on the board of TiE, he is now an active angel investor in Valley and a mentor to many entrepreneurs through TiE.

Over a period of time, Dr Patil has worked in the fields of computer architecture, parallel processing computers, mathematics for computer science, design methodology for very large integrated circuits and IC design automation software. He has over 40 scientific papers covering these areas of research and he is also the recipient of several patents in the field of integrated circuits. n