Focus on: Edward Cady
Ed Cady has been recommended as an Insider profile subject more often than any other person in the industry. While he is “in stealth mode with a nascent, interconnect company” at the moment, his contributions to the industry are considerable. “Stay tuned, as sooner or later, I will be seen again at yet another booth at DesignCon or SuperComputing,” said Ed.

Edward Cady
Current Position: I am consulting with a new leading edge, very high-speed interconnect company/group. I am completing some interconnection market analysis, as well. Things are fluid at the moment, and I’d love to hear from you if you need some related info.

Previous industry positions: Here are some of my favorites: Technician at Matrix Systems and Bowmar Ali; manufacturing engineering at 3M/LinoLex Systems; interconnect engineering at DataGeneral, Apollo Computer, HP, and Sequent; field application engineering with Berg/FCI; marketing with Contex; strategic marketing at Meritec; and co-chair of the first IEEE-1394 copper committee.

Industry affiliations: Through the years, it has been most enjoyable being involved with trade organizations like Ethernet Alliance, FCIA, IBta, PCI-SIG, VESA, VITA, and conferences such as DesignCon, IICIT, NAB, etc. One feels like a global gypsy after being a part of so many trade organizations and standards bodies.

Accomplishment you’re proud of: Building coax interconnects circa 1960 in my Uncle Charlie Cady’s test equipment lab when he was consulting for Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, especially during their considerable onsite visits. At that time, Charlie was doing a lot of audio development with his neighbor, Dr. Bose and I got to wire-up, final-assemble, and test some very early stereo equipment. In 1972, when working at General Radio, where Charlie was V.P. of engineering. I was transferred back and forth from the engineering department to the marketing department many times, as they had me doing technical marketing pitches for StrobeTac, the first commercial strobe-scope, when rock n’ roll bands like Jefferson Airplane came in.

It was fun helping to develop the early four-function, BowMar Ali calculator, the DG-1 laptop computer circa 1982, Apollo workstation computer circa 1987, and Sequent SMP computer circa 1990. Helping with the early development of TAB IC packaging, LVDS cabling, EISA, and PCI edge connectors were other pioneering experiences.

It has been very satisfying to have been part of the design-in process of standard connectors/cables for multiple copper and optical IO interfaces within birds-of-a-feather industry technical committees and consortia organizations such as Ethernet, FibreChannel, FireWire, HIPPI, InfiniBand, NGIO, PCMCIA, PICMG, SAS, SCSI, SCI, SMPTE, and several others. It was satisfying to have helped initiate and drive to market the ConSyse backplane connector, Interstitial PGA socket, NumaLink I/O cable, VHDCI I/O connector/cable, MegArray socket, PowerBlade DC power connector, SFF-8470 I/O connector/cable, and several other leading interconnect products.

It has been most satisfying to have hired many female technicians and engineers over the years, and to support the valuable contributions of women to our industry. Now, it is satisfying to work globally with so many excellent colleagues, while sharing our cultures and industry knowledge.

First Job: In 1968, designing and wire-wrapping backplanes that connected system PCBs within the chassis of DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) PDP computers was a dynamic job, because many changes were done on the fly, reflecting the quickly evolving semiconductor functionality and component integration of that time. Another early job was designing and prototyping test equipment, especially semi-rigid coax interconnects at General Radio. We developed the GR-874 coax connector that was the predecessor of BNC and N coax connectors during the 1960s.

Favorite website: My favorite website showcases and sells my latest products. Soon, I’ll do another one of these. Another favorite is www.napilisunset.com and their Live CAM at Napili beach, Maui; very relaxing. I also like www.datastorageconnection.com.

The last book I read: I recently reread the Pulitzer Prize-winning Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder. This book, based on a real story of new product development at Data General, has been required reading for many engineering-centric universities like Northeastern. In 1980, I was there managing the interconnect engineering department and was a part of the “Hardy Boys” team supporting VP Tom West, while he had us “flying upside down” at high speed. Our achievement was jumping way ahead of our primary competitor DEC, with our eagle MV8000 computer. The methods, themes, and scenarios are still similar today.

Why did you choose this industry for your profession: I am not sure if I chose it or it chose me. I was immersed in electronics as a kid, and in the Boston area as a whole for many years. Although I dabbled early on with software, manufacturing engineering, final assembly/test, industrial design, PCB design, power/cooling, system packaging, it seemed that interconnect was the main gnarly problem that people struggled with and hated to do. I found it relatively easy to do and was successful with it, and soon everyone quickly handed it over to me. So I guess it was a serendipitous process, then and now. How can one best hook up these active devices with a copper and/or optical backplane, connectors, or cables? Well, just let me help you with the next generation of high-speed interconnect.

If you knew then what I know now, I would have: Maybe I should have invested in copper and gold mines/bullion vs. a 401K? Would I have taken technical courses on fiber optics in 2007 vs. 1987? Should I have invested in Exxon oil or DuPont polymers during the 1980-1996 years vs. high-tech stocks? Now, should I invest in quartzite and other materials relative to the future of fiber optics? I should have taken my concept for an RJ45-sized optical connector and patented it, rather than watching the LC connector come out later! My real answer to the above question is, maybe, I should have sought more knowledge from the electronic pioneers, although I made an effort to learn a lot from Max Peel, Joe McKenzie, and many others.

The best advice anyone ever gave me was: Be prepared to do the whole thing yourself, but try to delegate as much as possible that you can control. Make designs work at several performance generations whenever economically feasible. Listen to what the problem really is before you try solving it. Ace the process first and design second. Know where your customers are headed and why.

What trend in the industry is affecting your job and what would you like to do about it? The rapidly growing need for very high speed, very light, very flexible, very small, very green interconnects, and the laws of physics that are against copper and are largely in favor of fiber optics is a trend I see. I would like to help pioneer newer optical connectors, cables, fiber circuit boards, and active optical assemblies.