The Bad Boy Of Silicon Valley

When T. J. Rodgers speaks, people bristle. The chief executive of Cypress Semiconductor Corp. calls large chip companies "dinosaurs." He accuses their executives of whining for "political protection" rather than innovating and investing. He complains that current government policies are designed to "prop up sagging companies." And he derides Sematech, the government- and industry-funded consortium intended to restore America's edge in semiconductors, as a "corporate country club" for big business.

Who is Thurman John Rodgers, and why does he keep saying those terrible things about his industry? Well-known around Silicon Valley as just "T. J.," Rodgers certainly has a taste for controversy. His insult-peppered insistence that mediocre management is the cause of most of the chip industry's problems, not unfair competition from Japan, has earned him some staunch adherents and plenty of vociferous critics. Depending on whom you ask, he's either an arrogant, publicity-seeking braggart, or a brilliant and innovative entrepreneur. W. J. Sanders III, CEO of Advanced Micro Devices Inc.--and Rodgers' former boss--has compared him to Joseph Goebbels, calling him "the master of the half-truth." Management guru Tom Peters considers him "a national treasure."