Ralph Ungermann

Ralph Kelley Ungermann (January 20, 1942 – June 2, 2015) was an American engineer and entrepreneur. He is best known for founding Zilog with Federico Faggin and Ungermann-Bass with Charlie Bass. Due to his work at U-B, he was considered to be a founding father of the data communications industry.

Early life and education Ralph was born in Provo, Utah on January 20, 1942. When he was 5 years old, his family moved to Santa Paula, California.

At first, Ralph wanted to study law but he changed his idea to study engineering after witnessing the launch of Sputnik 1, the first satellite ever to space. After college, Ralph started to work at Kodak in Rochester, NY. He then joined Collins Radio in 1967, where he became fascinated with semiconductors and early LAN technology.

Shortly before Collins Radio was acquired by Rockwell International in 1971, Ralph left in 1970 prior to business failure and joined Western Digital. There he created the first chip capable of UART communication.

Work at Intel After searching for a company involved in the semiconductor industry, Ralph joined Intel in 1971 under supervision of Federico Faggin.

Due to the success of Z80, Exxon invested more in Zilog but as a result demanded more from the company. Ungermann got dissatisfied with the pressure and clashed with the Exxon management. As a result, he was asked to leave at the end of 1978.

In 2003 he was among founders of a Chinese investment company called China Seed LLC.

Ralph died on June 2, 2015, due to lewy body dementia and his remains were cremated at Fernwood Funeral Home on June 28.