ISS Technology Update, Volume 9, Number 3

5
Meet the Expert—Chad Mar
With more than 23 years of experience at HP/Compaq, Chad Mar has displayed
a rare combination of knowledge, intellect, and leadership that exemplifies HP
leadership in server technology. Currently, Chad is a Project Manager for ISS
Shared Engineering Services with responsibilities that include the next generation
iLO technology, systems troubleshooting, and technology investigations. But over
three decades, he also has worked as a silicon fabrication manager, CMOS device
designer, technical project lead, program manager, product engineering manager,
and DRAM design manager. Notably, he helped to start up the ISS group and was
a key program manager who helped start the ProLiant server line. Before coming to
Compaq in 1987, he was a technical project design lead and program manager
at Texas Instruments (TI).
If that’s not enough, he managed the team that developed the ASIC (application-
specific integrated circuit) which implemented ECC memory in Compaq industry-
standard servers, and he was instrumental in getting the PCI-X standard adopted by
the industry (and Intel).
Ken Jansen, Chad’s manager, said that Chad has a unique level of knowledge and
ability that enables him to apply his expertice in a wide range of areas. For
example, Chad’s abilities range from working on low level design of devices to
working on complex problems that affect semiconductor yield production.
Semiconductor yield production is invisible to customers, but it’s critical to the development of new technologies and it affects
the time to market (and price) of next-generation servers.
He loves a challenge
Chad gets a lot of satisfaction from problem solving. He became hooked on engineering in the early 1970s when he
discovered that he could solve problems, invent, and learn while make a comfortable living. Chad and his wife Alexa have
been happily married for 37 years and have three grown children David, 36, Lindsay, 33, and Michael, 30.
His passion spills over into his hobbies: buying stocks and real estate and building stuff. Not surprising, he does a lot of
research before he makes a purchase. Last winter, he also researched and built his own HDTV antenna, which he uses to
watch local HD channels from 30 miles out without an amplifier. Total cost of the antenna materials: $8. Being able to watch
the Winter Olympics in HD using his home-built antenna: priceless.
His favorite project shook the world
When asked about his favorite projects, Chad mentioned that he was the program manager at TI who brought the first
speech synthesis chip to market in 1978—the TMC0281 Speech Synthesizer a.k.a. the “Speak and Spell” chip. Ken added
the Speak and Spell chip was named by IEEE Spectrum Magazine as one of the 25 chips that “shook the world,”
http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/processors/25-microchips-that-shook-the-world/0. Running a close second and
third at HP/Compaq were Chad’s involvement in developing PCI-X technology and getting ECC memory into the entire
ProLiant server line. Chad credited the many talented people he worked with at TI and HP/Compaq for the success of these
inventions.
He believes HP leadership is by design
Chad is part of HP’s in-house technical staff that provides support for customer issues. He pointed out that while the industry
commonly outsources manufacturing, HP creates its own ROM and CPLDs (complex programmable logic devices); has
extensive firmware development teams; and internally develops ASICs such as iLO. And although HP servers use industry-
standard CPUs, chipsets, and application-specific parts such as NICs, HP internally validates all of these component designs
for each ProLiant model.
Name: Chad Mar
Title: HP Project Manager, ISS Shared
Engineering Services
Years at HP: 23
University/Degree: Kansas State
University, BSEE 1970
Patents: 4