Professionally

My resume is available on LinkedIn.

I am a professional investor in the genetic engineering revolution.

I began my career long ago as a chip designer. Eventually I found my way to managing the patent portfolio for an AI software company. I love startup companies. I have worked for 7. Two went public. I did not get extremely, but it was enough to begin as an angel investor.

I did some reading and thinking about technology. I have lived through four distinct waves of technology that created startups that changed the world.

1. Chips and computers

2. The Internet

3. Mobile devices

4. Big data ("AI")

Most knowledgeable thinkers about technology revolutions agree that the next technology revolution will be in the engineering of living things. That includes, people, plants, and microbes. Such engineering applies the science of genomics to create what is referred to as synthetic biology or synbio. It is useful for things such as these.

• Cures for the worst and most expensive diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer's disease, heart disease, diabetes, and children's genetic diseases

• Safe vaccines against deadly and disruptive diseases

• Early diagnosis of diseases so that they can be cured without suffering

• Plants that provide healthier food in places where it is needed to prevent famines in a changing global climate

• Biomanufacturing of products and procurement of resources that improve the quality of people's lives

There are thousands of startup companies applying genomics and synbio to create these great things. However, not enough people invest in venture capital to provide the funding that the startup companies need to succeed. 

My objective is to ensure that mine, and my partners', money is invested in the ones with the greatest chance of creating the greatest benefits for people. I am proud to work hard, often 70 hours per week, to find and recognize the best genomics and synbio startups.

Personally

I seek to broaden my horizons. I often learn everything that I can about something new. Wikipedia is my favorite web site. I enjoy writing and teaching because that's the best way to learn.

I love that I have diverse friends and acquaintances. I view strangers as friends that I have yet to meet. I enjoy helping others. I will take either side for the sake of a good debate.

I enjoy cycling and tend a fine garden. I watch live theater but not television. I like cloudy weather and wind. I am selective about what organizations I join.

I love to travel, have spent time in most US states and many nations, and have a friend in each one. Though I wander, I spend most of my time in Silicon Valley.

I enjoy trying new languages, but I know only one fluently. Lately, I am studying Mandarin and reading traditional Chinese characters. I enjoy limericks, wordplay, thoughtful sayings, and general trivia. I like studying maps and have a good sense of direction. I drive a stick shift and can back up a trailer.

If your name is Probell, please let me know, especially if you are interested in having an email address ending in @probell.com. Otherwise, just enjoy this site.

Publications

Here is a list of some things that I have written. You can also search for me on Google Scholar and Google Patents.

• Neural Generation of Blocks for Video Coding paper arXiv 2020

• 中小テック企業の特許取得戦略 −シリコンバレーの特許専門家が思う 　日常業務の押さえどころ article Tokugikon 2017

• Patenting for the Small Company – Third Edition book Amazon 2017

• The Rubber Jigsaw Puzzle: Floorplanning for Network-on-chip conference paper SNUG 2015

• Slash SoC power consumption in the interconnect magazine article EDN 2014

• Midpoint at 237 City Council Packet letter to city council San Jose city planning department 2014

• Demand-based Scheduling using NoC Probes conference paper unpublished 2013

• Endianness technical brief unpublished

• Power and Area Benefits of Modular Interconnect Design white paper Arteris web site 2012

• Critical word first or Sequential cache miss refill policy white paper unpublished 2011

• The Growing Cost of Wires white paper ARM Technology Conference 2010

• NoC Advantages for SoC Prototyping on Big FPGA Boards white paper Arteris 2010

• The Conundrum of Peer-to-Peer Video Distribution long article EE Times Signal Processing DesignLine 2010

• MIPS in Handsets – Why Not? article EE Times 2009

• Synergies could trigger a Synopsys-ARM merger article EE Times 2009

• 6 critical keys to IP licensing success article EE Times 2009

• Processor architecture not a factor for low-power mobile systems long article Embedded Systems Design 2009

• Who Killed My Battery? short article DSP DesignLine 2009

• Video processing pipeline design article EE Times DSP DesignLine 2008

• A Designer’s Guide to HD Video Pre- and Post-Processing white paper Tensilica 2008

• Truly Understanding Low-Power Multimedia Chip Design conference presentation Portable Design Conference 2008

• Frame Processing Time Deviations in Video Processors white paper Tensilica 2008

• Selecting Video IP for SOC Design: Ask the Tough Questions webcast EDN 2007

• Letter to the editor: IP pros, cons magazine article EE Times 2007

• Minimizing Power Consumption in a Mobile Video Subsystem magazine article Portable Design 2007

• A Brief History of Video Coding white paper ARC 2007

• Memory bandwidth metrics for video processing magazine article DSP DesignLine

• Ghosts of Video Processors Past, Present, and Future magazine article unpublished 2006

• ARCHITECTURES: Multimedia platform stresses flexibility magazine article quotation EE Times 2006

• Integrating IP in Multicore DSP/Processor SoCs conference panel Global Signal Processing Conference 2006

• System Design Tricks for Low-Power Video Processing conference presentation Global Signal Processing Conference 2006

• System Design Tricks for Low-Power Video Processing conference paper Global Signal Processing Conference 2006

• Architecture Considerations for Multi-Format Programmable Video Processors journal article IEEE Journal of Signal Processing Systems for Signal, Image, and Video Technology 2006

• Architecture Considerations for Multi-Format Programmable Video Processors conference paper Picture Coding Symposium 2006

• The Trade-Offs of Software Programmability in Video Processors conference panel DesignCon 2005

• Processor system that allows for simultaneous access by multiple requestors to a target with multiple ports patent application US Patent & Trademark Office 2005

• Data movement within a processor patent application US Patent & Trademark Office 2005

• Digital Video to Come Alive in 2005 (article text) magazine article TechOnLine 2004

• What Choices Make a Killer Video Processor Architecture (presentation slides) conference presentation Global Signal Processing Conference 2004

• What Choices Make a Killer Video Processor Architecture (presentation slides with audio narration) conference presentation Global Signal Processing Conference 2004

• What Choices Make a Killer Video Processor Architecture (published paper) conference paper Global Signal Processing Conference 2004

• Processor Architecture for High Performance Video Decode (article text) article Video/Imaging DesignLine 2004

• The Ultra Data UD3000: A Next Generation Video Processor Core conference presentation Embedded Processor Forum 2004

• Improving Application Performance with Instruction Set Architecture Extensions to Embedded Processors conference paper DesignCon 2004

• LX5380 RISC-DSP for New Internet Applications conference presentation Microprocessor Forum 2001

• Considerations for the Design of a Reusable SOC Hardware/Software Development Board magazine article ICD Magazine 2001

• Verification of Lexra Processor Cores conference presentation DesignCon 2000

• High-Performance RISC-DSP for IP Licensing conference presentation Microprocessor Forum 1999

• Identifying Bacteria by Spectral Analysis research report Westinghouse Science Talent Search 1994