Gene Amdahl

American physicist (1922-2015)

Gene Myron Amdahl (November 16, 1922 – November 10, 2015) was an American computer architect and high-tech entrepreneur. He was known for his work on mainframe computers at IBM alongside Fred Brooks and Gerrit Blaauw and later his own companies, especially Amdahl Corporation. He formulated Amdahl's law, which states a fundamental limitation of parallel computing.

Gene Amdahl
Gene Amdahl addressing a UW–Madison Alumni gathering, March 13, 2008
Born(1922-11-16)November 16, 1922
DiedNovember 10, 2015(2015-11-10) (aged 92)
NationalityAmerican
CitizenshipUSA
Alma materSouth Dakota State University (B.S., 1948)
University of Wisconsin–Madison (M.S.; Ph.D., 1952)
Known forfounding Amdahl Corporation; formulating Amdahl's law; IBM 360, 704
AwardsNational Academy of Engineering (1967)
Computer History Museum Fellow (1998) [1]
Scientific career
FieldsEntrepreneur
Computer science
Institutionsdegrees in theoretical physics from the University of Wisconsin.
ThesisThe Logical Design of an Intermediate Speed Digital Computer (1953)
Doctoral advisorRobert G. Sachs[2][3][4]

In 1998, he was made a Fellow [5] of the Computer History Museum "for his fundamental work in computer architecture and design, project management, and leadership."

Amdahl died of pneumonia after suffering from Alzheimer's disease during the last years of his life in Palo Alto, California, aged 92.

References

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  1. "Gene Amdahl 1998 Fellow". Archived from the original on 2015-11-15. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  2. Amdahl, Gene M. (1989). "Oral history interview with Gene M. Amdahl" (Interview). Interviewed by Arthur L. Norberg. hdl:11299/104341. OH 107. Retrieved 2016-12-29. {{cite interview}}: Unknown parameter |program= ignored (help)
  3. Amdahl, Gene M. (2000-09-24). "Amdahl, Gene oral history" (Interview). Interviewed by William Aspray. CHM Ref: X5988.2011. Retrieved 2016-11-15. {{cite interview}}: Unknown parameter |program= ignored (help)
  4. Anderson, William S. (2007). "An Interview with Gene M. Amdahl". IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society Newsletter. 12 (3): 10–16. doi:10.1109/N-SSC.2007.4785613. ISSN 1098-4232. S2CID 42621761.
  5. CHM. "Gene Amdahl— CHM Fellow Award Winner". Archived from the original on November 15, 2015. Retrieved March 27, 2015.[1] Archived 2015-11-15 at the Wayback Machine

Other websites

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