The Arthur W. Astrin papers, ranging in date from 1965 to 2002, contain materials related to Astrin’s career as an engineer and executive at Unicomp, Intersil, Rolm Corporation, Memorex, and Apple. The collection includes technical reports, presentation materials, design drawings, memos, manuals, program listings, posters, and software.

Artur Ichnowski, known professionally as Arthur W. Astrin, was an engineer best known for his pioneering work in digital signal processing, fast Fourier transform (FFT), and most notably, the Wi-Fi industry. Born in 1945 in Poland, Astrin immigrated to the United States in 1964 and settled in Los Angeles. He enrolled at Cal State University Northridge, where he studied math and physics. Astrin graduated from Northridge in 1967 with a degree in mathematics and subsequently started a master’s program in Mathematics at UC San Diego. While pursuing his graduate degree, he worked at several jobs, including one at Northridge Engineering where he worked on fast Fourier transform (FFT) algorithms for radar applications. Astrin earned his master’s degree in 1968 and moved to Los Angeles, where he began a PhD program in Communications Engineering while also working at Unicomp. In July 1968, he married his wife, Jeanne.

72.84 Linear feet 44 record cartons, 2 manuscript boxes, 5 newspaper boxes, and 15 other containers

The Computer History Museum (CHM) can only claim physical ownership of the collection. Users are responsible for satisfying any claims of the copyright holder. Requests for copying and permission to publish, quote, or reproduce any portion of the Computer History Museum’s collection must be obtained jointly from both the copyright holder (if applicable) and the Computer History Museum.

The collection is open for research. However, the collection may require review by CHM staff before viewing.