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Filipino
Inventions
That
Are Filipino
By Marcia Wendorf
Inventions by Filipino inventors include the graphics
accelerator chip, wearable camera, and the lunar rover.
The next time you watch a video on your PC or play a video game,
consider thanking Filipino inventor Diosdado Banatao who
invented the graphics accelerator chip for personal computers.
Banatao was born to a poor rice farmer in 1946, and walked
barefoot on a dirt road to elementary school.
Following high school, Banatao graduated from the MapĂșa
Institute of Technology with a degree in electrical engineering.
He then went to work for Philippine Airlines as a pilot, but was
soon working in the U.S. at the Boeing Corporation.
Banatao attended prestigious Stanford University, where he
graduated in 1972 with a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and
Computer Science.
Working at Commodore International,
Banatao designed the first single chip, 16-bit microprocessor-based calculator,
which endeared him to high school students everywhere.
Banatao was then credited with creating the first system logic
chip set for IBM's PC-XT and the PC-AT, the local bus concept, and
the first Windows graphics accelerator chip for personal computers.
This latter discovery allowed computers to work much faster, and
allowed users to interact with computers graphically rather than just through
the command line.
Banatao went on to receive a Ph.D. from Stanford University in
mixed-signal CMOS IC design, and he has received numerous awards, co-authored
13 papers, and holds six U.S. patents.
The
Lipstick Camera
Just before the turn of the 21st Century, Filipino Marc
Loinaz invented the one chip video camera.
Working with a team at Lucent Technologies in
the U.S., they were tasked with creating a camera that was so cheap and used so
little electrical power, that it could be integrated into things, such as
watches and appliances.
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