[COFF] In memoriam: Gene Amdahl

[COFF] In memoriam: Gene Amdahl

[dave]

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] In memoriam: Gene Amdahl

[clemc]

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

[dave]

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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

[COFF] In memoriam: Gene Amdahl

[dave]

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