Zuken has compiled a number of touching sentiments from friends of the late Alan Finch, credited with developing the first shape-based autorouter.

Finch, of course, wrote the landmark paper that followed up his Racal-Redac colleague Ulrich Lauther, who conceived a router with no defined cell size.

Look closely and there’s a mention of Pete Waddell, UPMG president and an admirer of Finch.