AMD Co-Founder, Ed Turney Dies

This story won't inform you about any sort of new hardware, but will only remind you that everything we like today is made by human hands and when some of these people dies we should give him the deserved respect. Yesterday, at the age of 79 died Ed Turney, one of the eight founders of semiconductor-industry giant Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). The cause of his departure from this world is brain cancer. Turney was born March 26, 1929, in Brooklyn, N.Y. Known as "Fast Eddie," Turney's initial assignments at the fledgling AMD involved buying equipment and overseeing construction of the company's first chip factory. At the same time, as director of sales, Turney was charged with building a sales organization, including developing a network of electronic distributors - a vital step in enabling the company to compete with established companies such as Intel, Fairchild, National Semiconductor, Texas Instruments, Motorola and other companies that no longer exist. In late 1974 Turney left AMD, going on to work at various small semiconductor manufacturing and distribution companies. He later became a consultant to firms trying to get started or funded. Ed Turney will be buried in St. Theresa's Court next to his mother, Rose.