Robert Drost

Drost joined Sun Microsystems in 1993 after obtaining a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. In 2001 he earned a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and a Ph.D. minor in Computer Science from Stanford. As of 2011 he is a holder of over 95 patents[1] in microelectronics.

Until 2010, Drost was Distinguished Engineer and Senior Director of Advanced Hardware at Sun Microsystems,[2] helping to pioneer wireless connections between computer chips[3] called proximity communication.[4]

Since 2010, Drost has had various roles, including CEO, COO, and CFO, at Pluribus Networks, Inc., a Palo Alto based startup that he co-founded with Sunay Tripathi and Chih-Kong Ken Yang.

• Awarded Best Paper at Supercomputing 2008, the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis.
• Named to the MIT Technology Review TR100 as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35.[5][6]
• Wall Street Journal Gold Medal for Innovation in Computing Systems.[7]
• Judge for the Wall Street Journal's Technology Innovation Awards since 2005.

Drost co-authored (with R. Ho) Coupled Data Communication Techniques for High-Performance and Low-Power Computing, Springer, 2010.

Other publications:

• J. Mitchell, J. Cunningham, A.V. Krishnamoorthy, R. Drost, R. Ho, "Integrating novel packaging technologies for large-scale computer systems," to appear in 2009 ASME/Pacific Rim Technical Conference and Exhibition on Packaging and Integration of Electronic and Photonic Systems, MEMS, and NEMS Conference (Interpack2009), June 2009.
• I. Shubin, E.M. Chow, J. Cunningham, D. DeBruyker, C. Chua, B. Cheng, J. Knights, K. Sahasrabuddhe, Y. Luo, A. Chow, J. Simons, A. Krishnamoorthy, R. Hopkins, R. Drost,
• R. Ho, D. Douglas, J. Mitchell, "Novel Packaging with Rematable Spring Interconnect Chips for MCMs," to appear in 2009 IEEE Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC2009), May 2009.
• T. Sze, M. Giere, B. Guenin, N. Nettleton, D. Popovic, R. Drost, R. Hopkins, R. Ho, S. Bezuk, "Proximity interconnect flip-chip package with micron chip-to-chip alignment tolerances," to appear in 2009 IEEE Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC2009), May 2009.
• A. Chow, R. Hopkins, R. Drost, R. Ho, "Enabling Technologies for Multi-Chip Integration using Proximity Communication," 5th Annual IEEE Int'l Symposium on VLSI Design, Automation, and Test (VLSI-DAT2009), April 2009.
• A. Chow, D. Hopkins, R. Drost, R. Ho, “Exploiting capacitance in high-performance computer systems,” IEEE Int'l Symposium on VLSI Design, Automation and Test, pp. 23–25, Apr. 2008.
• A. Chow, D. Hopkins, R. Ho, R. Drost, “Measuring 6D Chip Alignment in Multi-Chip Packages,” IEEE Conference on Sensors, pp. 1307–1310, Oct. 2007.
• X. Zheng, J. Lexau, J. Bergey, J.E. Cunningham, R. Ho, R. Drost, A.V. Krishnamoorthy, “Optical Transceiver Chips Based on Co-Integration of Capacitively Coupled Proximity Interconnects and VCSELs,” IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, vol. 19:7, pp. 453–5, Apr. 2007.
• J. Lexau, X. Zheng, J. Bergey, A. Krishnamoorthy, R. Ho, R. Drost, J. Cunningham, “CMOS Integration of Capacitive, Optical, and Electrical Interconnects,” Proceedings of the International Interconnect Technology Conference, June 2007.
• F. Liu, R. Ho, R. Drost, S. Fairbanks, “On-chip samplers for test and debug of asynchronous circuits,” IEEE International Symposium on Asynchronous Circuits and Systems, pp. 153–162, March 2007.
• R. Ho, T. Ono, F. Liu, R. Hopkins, A. Chow, R. Drost, “High-Speed and Low-Energy Capacitively-Driven On-Chip Wires,” IEEE Int'l Solid-State Circuits Conference, pp. 412–3, Feb. 2007.
• D. Hopkins, A. Chow, R. Bosnyak, B. Coates, J. Ebergen, S. Fairbanks, J. Gainsley, R. Ho, J. Lexau, F. Liu, T. Ono, J. Schauer, I. Sutherland, R. Drost, “Circuit Techniques to Enable 430Gb/s/mm2 Proximity Communication,” IEEE Int'l Solid-State Circuits Conference, pp. 368–9, Feb. 2007.
• R. Drost, C. Forrest, B. Guenin, R. Ho, A.V. Krishnamoorthy, D. Cohen, J.E. Cunningham, B. Tourancheau, A. Zingher, A. Chow, G. Lauterbach, I. Sutherland, “Challenges in building a flat-bandwidth memory hierarchy for a large-scale computer with Proximity Communication,” High Performance Interconnects Symposium, pp. 13–22, Aug. 2005.
• R. Drost, B. Wooley, “An 8-Gbps/pin Simultaneously Bidirectional Transceiver in 0.35-micron CMOS,” IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, pp. 1894–1908, Nov. 2004.
• R. Drost, R. D. Hopkins, R. Ho, I. Sutherland, “Proximity Communication,” IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, pp. 1529–35, Sept. 2004.
• A. V. Krishnamoorthy, D. Huang, T. Sze, R. Drost, R. Ho, H. L. Davidson and R. Lytel, "Challenges and Potentials for Multi-Terabit-Per-Second Optical Transceivers," Optical Interconnects and VLSI Photonics Conference, IEEE LEOS, June 2004.
• R. Drost, "Proximity Communication," 3D Architectures for Semiconductor Integration and Packaging conference, RTI International Technology Venture Forum, Apr. 2004.
• R. Ho, J. Gainsley, R. Drost, “Long Wires and Asynchronous Control,” IEEE Asynchronous Circuits and Systems Symposium, Apr. 2004.
• R. Drost, R. Ho, R. D. Hopkins, I. Sutherland, “Electronic Alignment for Proximity Communication,” IEEE Int'l Solid-State Circuits Conference, Feb. 2004.
• R. Drost, R. D. Hopkins, I. Sutherland, “Proximity Communications,” IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference, pp. 469–472, Sept. 2003.
• H. Hatamkhani, K-L. J. Wong, R. Drost, C-K. K. Yang, “A 10-mW 3.6-Gbps I/O Transmitter,” IEEE VLSI Circuits Symposium, pp. 97–98, June 2003.
• W. Coates, R. Drost, “Congestion and Starvation Detection in Ripple FIFOs,” IEEE Asynchronous Circuits and Systems Symposium, pp. 36–45, May 2003.
• S. Bardwaj, S.S. Mohan, R. Drost, B.T. Khuri-Yakub, K. Saraswat, “In-situ Film Thickness and Temperature Monitoring Using a 2 GHz Acoustic Phase Measurement System,” IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium, pp. 965–967, Dec. 1991.

• New York Times Article on Proximity Communication
• VLSI Research group publications, Oracle (previously Sun Microsystems) Labs