Andy (Andreas) von Bechtolsheim (born in Germany in 1955) co-founded Sun Microsystems in 1982 with Vinod Khosla, Bill Joy, and Scott McNealy. Year 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1955 Gregorian calendar). ... Sun Microsystems, Inc. ... Year 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday (link displays the 1982 Gregorian calendar). ... Vinod Khosla (born January 28, 1955 in Poona[1]) is an Indian venture capitalist. ... Bill Joy William Nelson Joy (born Nov 8, 1954), commonly known as Bill Joy, is an American computer scientist. ... Scott McNealy holding Suns new UltraSPARC T1 processor, unveiled on November 14, 2005. ...

Bechtolsheim received an undergraduate degree from the Technical University of Munich, Germany, and received his master's degree in electrical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. Munich University of Technology, or Technical University of Munich (TUM) (in German: Technische Universität München, TUM), is a major German university located in Munich (and the towns of Garching and Freising outside of Munich). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. ...

At Stanford University, Bechtolsheim had devised a powerful computer (which he called a workstation) with built-in networking running the Unix operating system. He developed the workstation because he was sick of waiting for computer time on the central University system. Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly known as Stanford University (or simply Stanford), is a private university located approximately 37 miles (60 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco and approximately 20 miles northwest of San José in Stanford, California. ... Sun SPARCstation 1+, 25 MHz RISC processor from early 1990s A workstation, such as a Unix workstation, RISC workstation or engineering workstation, is a high-end desktop or deskside microcomputer designed for technical applications. ... Filiation of Unix and Unix-like systems Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX®) is a computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie and Douglas McIlroy. ... Alternate uses: see Timesharing Time-sharing is an approach to interactive computing in which a single computer is used to provide apparently simultaneous interactive general-purpose computing to multiple users by sharing processor time. ...

Khosla approached him, wanting to build a business around selling the workstation. He also approached McNealy who was at another company after having completed his MBA at Stanford Business School in 1980. Stanford Graduate School of Business, also known as Stanford Business School or Stanford GSB, is one of the top business schools in the world, and part of Stanford University. ...

They named the company Sun, derived from "Stanford University Network." Bechtolsheim left Stanford, where he was enrolled in a Ph.D. program, to found the company. Sun Microsystems, Inc. ... Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated Ph. ...

Sun Microsystems quickly became a success, with $1 billion in sales by 1988. By 2003, the market capitalization of Sun Microsystems was $11.5 billion. Year 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Market capitalization, or market cap, is a measurement of corporate or economic size equal to the stock price times the number of shares outstanding of a public company. ...

He left Sun in 1995 to found Granite Systems, a company focused on developing high-speed network switches. In 1996, Cisco Systems acquired the firm for $220 million, with Bechtolsheim owning 60%.^[1] He became Vice President and general manager of Cisco's Gigabit Systems Business Unit, until leaving the company in December 2003 to head Kealia, Inc. Year 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full 1995 Gregorian calendar). ... A Cisco ASM/2-32EM router deployed at CERN in 1987. ...

Bechtolsheim founded Kealia in early 2001 with David Cheriton, who was also a partner in Granite Systems, to work on advanced server technologies. In February 2004, Sun Microsystems announced it was acquiring Kealia in a stock swap. Due to the acquisition, Bechtolsheim returned to Sun again as senior vice president and chief architect. ^[2] David R. Cheriton David R. Cheriton is a professor at Stanford University where he leads the Distributed Systems Group. ...

Bechtolsheim and Cheriton were two of the first investors in Google, investing $100,000 in 1998. Bechtolsheim reportedly wrote the check to "Google Inc" prior to the company even being founded. The story that says Bechtolsheim coined the name "Google" is untrue. However, when he gave the check to Lawrence E. Page and Sergey Brin, Google's founders, they did not yet even have a checking account into which the check could be deposited.[1] Bechtolsheim seeded many companies in this fashion, including OnFiber Communications, the industry leader in metro transport for large enterprises (acquired by Qwest in 2006). This article is about the corporation. ... Google co-founder Larry Page This article belongs in one or more categories. ... Sergey Brin (Russian: ) (born August 21, 1973) is a Russian American entrepreneur. ...

Bechtolsheim is also an investor in controversial spyware vendor Claria, formerly Gator. A large number of toolbars, some added by spyware, overwhelm an Internet Explorer session. ... Claria Corporation (formerly Gator Corporation) is an advertising software and e-wallet company based in Redwood City, California. ...

As a result of shrewd investments like these, Bechtolsheim is increasingly being seen as the most successful Angel investor, particularly in areas such as electronic design automation (EDA), which refers to the software used by people designing computer chips. He has made a number of successful investments in EDA. He argues that changes in the chips themselves are outpacing the development of EDA tools, creating what he sees as an opportunity. It was his interest in these design tools while at Stanford which prompted his frustration when waiting for access to mainframes which led to his development of the first workstation. PCB Layout Program Electronic design automation (EDA) is the category of tools for designing and producing electronic systems ranging from printed circuit boards (PCBs) to integrated circuits. ...

One such EDA company, Magma Design Automation Inc., has been tremendously profitable for Bechtolsheim, with his stake in the company being valued around $60 million. The most profitable for Bechtolsheim was his initial $100,000 investment in Google, which is now worth approximately US$1.5 billion. [2] Magma Design Automation, Inc (Nasdaq: LAVA) is an electronic design automation (EDA) software company, founded in 1997, located in Santa Clara, California. ...

Bechtolsheim recently invested in yet another company. He has joined George T. Haber, a former colleague at Sun, to invest in Los Altos wireless chip company CrestaTech The company develops very Low Power RF chips. Andreas was an investor in all of Haber's previous stat ups 1) CompCore sold to Zoran for $70M 2)GigaPixel sold to 3DFx for $187M and 3) Mobilygen

Bechtolsheim is a founding member of Carnegie Mellon University's West Coast campus in Mountain View, California. Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. ... Carnegie Mellon West is a branch campus of Carnegie Mellon University located in the heart of Silicon Valley on Moffett Field near Mountain View in San Francisco, California. ... Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, in the U.S. state of California. ...

References

1. ^ Cohan, Peter. "Lessons from High-Tech Companies", Journal of Business Strategy. Retrieved on 2007-04-30. 
2. ^ Sun Microsystems, Inc. (February 10, 2004). SUN TO ACQUIRE KEALIA, INC. -- SUN CO-FOUNDER AND INDUSTRY TECHNOLOGY VISIONARY RETURNS AS CHIEF ARCHITECT. Press release. Retrieved on 2007-01-10.

Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... is the 120th day of the year (121st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... A press release (sometimes known as a news release or press statement) is a written or recorded communication directed at members of the news media for the purpose of announcing something claimed as having news value. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... January 10 is the 10th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Computer History Museum, 11-Jan-2006: Sun Founders Panel
  • Sun Feature Story: The Fab Four Reunites (webcast of the event)
• Gator.com Receives $12 Million in VC Funding
• Andreas von Bechtolsheim, The Midas List - Forbes.com