Robert Drost is an American computer scientist. He was born in 1970 in New York City.
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 in microelectronics.
Until 2010, Drost was an engineer and senior director of advanced hardware at Sun Microsystems, helping to pioneer wireless connections between computer chips called proximity communication.
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.
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.
