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Mahmud Hossain

A BUET graduate, has over three decades of leadership experience in Bangladesh’s telecom and ICT sectors. He played a key role in introducing mobile technologies in the country. He now serves as a Commissioner at BTRC, following senior leadership roles in several national and multinational industry-leading companies.
Intel’s 'innovator’s dilemma'
Intel’s 'innovator’s dilemma'

Intel’s 'innovator’s dilemma'

On the stage of the Macworld Conference in San Francisco, history was about to be made in January, 2006. One after another, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and Intel CEO Paul Otellini stepped onto the stage. That day, Jobs made a historic announcement: from now on, all Mac computers would run on Intel processors.

Historic battle over lithography
Historic battle over lithography

Historic battle over lithography

One day in 1992, Intel researcher John Carruthers approached the company’s CEO, Andy Grove, with a strange request. He asked for $200 million in funding to research a technology that no one was sure would even work. The technology was called Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) Lithography—an ultra-precise process of etching electronic circuits onto silicon.

The beginning of China’s semiconductor industry
The beginning of China’s semiconductor industry

The beginning of China’s semiconductor industry

In 1987, two very different dreams were born in Asia. In Taiwan, Morris Chang set his sights on building a company called TSMC that would manufacture the world’s best chips. At the same time, in Shenzhen, China, Ren Zhengfei founded Huawei—a small business that purchased cheap telecom equipment from Hong Kong and sold it in the Chinese market.

Taiwan’s rise in semiconductors and birth of TSMC
Taiwan’s rise in semiconductors and birth of TSMC

Taiwan’s rise in semiconductors and birth of TSMC

One afternoon in 1985, Taiwan’s influential minister K.T. Li invited Morris Chang to his office. Nearly two decades earlier, it was Li who had persuaded Texas Instruments to set up the first chip factory in Taiwan.

Computer chip: Bonafide hero of Gulf War
chip war: Part 10

Computer chip: Bonafide hero of Gulf War

US F-117 bombers took off silently from an air base in Saudi Arabia at the dawn of January 17, 1991. The target was Baghdad.

Rise of Korea: Enemy's enemy is an ally
 chip war: Part 9

Rise of Korea: Enemy's enemy is an ally

Lee Byung-chul was an individual with natural, innate traits for entrepreneurship. He had a magical aura in dealing with business— he was successful in whatever business he took up. In 1938, when the drums of war were rolling out all around, and Korea was under Japanese rule and at war with China, he started his dream company, Samsung.