Arm TechCon and the 5th wave

Back when I was a young engineer at Inmos (remember them?) I attended a pep talk given by the flamboyant Texan who had the job of running our new wafer fab in Duffryn, South Wales. I don’t recall his name or much of the talk, but I do remember the white suit, the ten-gallon hat, and the ostrich-skin cowboy boots. I also remember what he said about getting the job of running one of the most advanced wafer fabs in the world: “it’s like being told you’re getting a bearskin rug as a present, then you find out it’s still