Early life James L. Buie was born in 1920 in
Hollywood, California. He went to the local public schools and graduated from
Hollywood High School. He then attended the
Los Angeles City College and received an associate's degree. Buie served in
World War II as a
naval aviator and became a
lieutenant commander. He was awarded the United States
Distinguished Flying Cross for action during May 26–31, 1944. Buie, an electrical engineering graduate of
University of Southern California who received a BSEE in 1950, took his first job at Pacific Semiconductors (PSI) in
Culver City, California in 1951, where he worked on transistor circuitry as related to diodes and resistors. He was next employed by
Ramo-Woolridge Corporation in 1954; Ramo-Woolridge joined with
Thompson Automotive Group in 1958, and eventually in 1965 Thompson-Ramo-Woolridge became known as
TRW Inc. Career Buie invented
transistor-to-transistor logic circuitry ("TTL") in 1961 at TRW which played a major role in the development of the integrated circuit industry. TTL integrated circuits use transistors for the input gating structure instead of diodes, resistors, and capacitors as was used in the previous technology. His TTL semiconductor technology initially was used in mainframe computers. Buie's integrated circuit chips in the 1970s were the preferred technology for mini-computers, computer peripherals, factory controls, and test instrumentation. The microelectronic processor-based systems he invented were an industrial standard for two decades from the 1980s onwards. TRW licensed the new technology to other companies to use in data processing and communications electronics. Buie was a senior scientist and one of the organizers for TRW's Microelectronics Center that formed in 1963. The first commercial integrated circuit products using the TTL technology were made by Sylvania in 1963 and known as the Sylvania Universal High-Level Logic family. The TTL electronics Buie invented became the electronics industry standard from the mid-1960s, and the dominant architecture for integrated circuit technology in the 1970s and early 1980s. He helped establish TRW's
large scale integration LSI Products Division in 1977. in 1973. ==References==