* [COFF] In memoriam: Gene Amdahl
@ 2018-11-10 0:18 dave
0 siblings, 0 replies; 4+ messages in thread
From: dave @ 2018-11-10 0:18 UTC (permalink / raw)
We lost computer architect Gene Amdahl on this day in 2015; responsible
for "Amdahl's Law" (referring to parallel computing), he had a hand in the
IBM-704, the System/360, and founded Amdahl Corporation (a clone of the
360/370 series).
-- Dave
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 4+ messages in thread
* [COFF] In memoriam: Gene Amdahl
2019-11-11 15:05 ` clemc
@ 2019-11-11 21:38 ` dave
0 siblings, 0 replies; 4+ messages in thread
From: dave @ 2019-11-11 21:38 UTC (permalink / raw)
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On Mon, 11 Nov 2019, Clem Cole wrote:
> According to my friend Russ Robulen (his coworker, lead on the 360/50,
> worked on /91 and later lead for the IBM ASC), Amdahl wanted the byte
> to be 7-bits for S/360, but Fred Brook's overruled him. Brooks was said
> to have thrown Amdahl out his office and told him "not come back unless
> it was a power of 2", as "he could not program it sanely otherwise."
> Amdahl semi-won the 24/32 bit war. Brooks let he have a 24 bit basic
> word, only if it stored it as 32 bits and ensured that all pointers were
> stored in the same. Russ says that Amdahl always thought both choices
> were a terrible waste of hardware. Gordon Bell later said, those two
> choices were the most important in S/360's lasting impact.
Interesting; I'll try and summarise that for my calendar. In the meantime
I'm glad that Brooks' view prevailed, having worked with byte-less 12-bit
(PDP-8) and 60-bit (CDC); I don't remember the word length of the
Burroughs series.
-- Dave
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 4+ messages in thread
* [COFF] In memoriam: Gene Amdahl
2019-11-09 22:09 dave
@ 2019-11-11 15:05 ` clemc
2019-11-11 21:38 ` dave
0 siblings, 1 reply; 4+ messages in thread
From: clemc @ 2019-11-11 15:05 UTC (permalink / raw)
According to my friend Russ Robulen (his coworker, lead on the 360/50,
worked on /91 and later lead for the IBM ASC), Amdahl wanted the byte to
be 7-bits for S/360, but Fred Brook's overruled him. Brooks was said to
have thrown Amdahl out his office and told him "not come back unless it was
a power of 2", as "he could not program it sanely otherwise." Amdahl
semi-won the 24/32 bit war. Brooks let he have a 24 bit basic word, only
if it stored it as 32 bits and ensured that all pointers were stored in the
same. Russ says that Amdahl always thought both choices were a terrible
waste of hardware. Gordon Bell later said, those two choices were the
most important in S/360's lasting impact.
Clem
On Sat, Nov 9, 2019 at 5:10 PM Dave Horsfall <dave at horsfall.org> wrote:
> We lost computer architect Gene Amdahl on this day in 2015; responsible
> for "Amdahl's Law" (referring to parallel computing), he had a hand in the
> IBM-704, the System/360, and founded Amdahl Corporation (a clone of the
> 360/370 series).
>
> -- Dave
> _______________________________________________
> COFF mailing list
> COFF at minnie.tuhs.org
> https://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/coff
>
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* [COFF] In memoriam: Gene Amdahl
@ 2019-11-09 22:09 dave
2019-11-11 15:05 ` clemc
0 siblings, 1 reply; 4+ messages in thread
From: dave @ 2019-11-09 22:09 UTC (permalink / raw)
We lost computer architect Gene Amdahl on this day in 2015; responsible
for "Amdahl's Law" (referring to parallel computing), he had a hand in the
IBM-704, the System/360, and founded Amdahl Corporation (a clone of the
360/370 series).
-- Dave
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 4+ messages in thread
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2018-11-10 0:18 [COFF] In memoriam: Gene Amdahl dave
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