Rahul Sud

Rahul Sud was an Indian-born chip designer who had worked at Intel and Inmos before co-founding Lattice Semiconductor in 1983. He provided the technical vision for the company's programmable logic strategy and served as president until December 1986. However, Sud lacked management experience and, alongside co-founder Ray Capece, made critical errors including leasing an extravagant 140,000-square-foot headquarters, overspending on perks, and failing to deliver products on schedule. The company's first product flopped amid an industry downturn, and a patent infringement suit from Monolithic Memories killed a promising programmable memory chip. Sud was dismissed by the board in 1986 and later filed a wrongful discharge suit, settling out of court after Lattice countersued.

Rahul Sud was an Indian-born semiconductor engineer and co-founder of Lattice Semiconductor Corporation. After gaining experience as a chip designer at Intel and Inmos, Sud partnered with Ray Capece and C. Norman Winningstad to found Lattice International Inc. in April 1983. Sud served as president and provided the technical vision for the company's programmable logic device strategy. However, his lack of management experience led to critical missteps including extravagant spending, missed production schedules, and failed product launches. The company lost $7 million in 1986, and Sud was dismissed by the board in December 1986. He later filed a wrongful discharge lawsuit against Lattice, settling out of court. Despite the company's near-collapse under his leadership, Sud's technical insights into programmable logic established the foundation for Lattice's eventual product direction.