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Wednesday,
September 5, 6:00 p.m.
NASA Ames
Main Auditorium (Building 201),
Moffett Federal Airfield, Mountain View, CA, USA
Reception
to follow in
Museum's Visible Storage Exhibit Area (Building 126)
ABSTRACT
OF TALK
The year was 1970, not a banner year for starting
a company, for it was the middle of a major recession. Unexpected
events that further complicated our progress seem to be, even in
retrospect, virtually statistically impossible. Those complications
were coupled with the challenge of developing new semiconductor,
packaging, and cooling technologies with which to design a simpler,
yet more powerful, computer that was compatible with IBM's System
360/370 product line. As a consequence, the development took about
50% longer and was more costly than expected, but it was an astounding
success that greatly benefited the entire computing community.
BACKGROUND OF SPEAKER
Gene Myron Amdahl received his B.S. in
Engineering Physics from South Dakota State University in 1948, and his Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics
from the University of Wisconsin in 1952.
His early professional career was spent at IBM where he worked on simulation studies and
machine design for character recognition as designer and project manager for the IBM 704; as initial
planner for the IBM 709 and 7030; and as Manager of Architecture for the IBM System/360. By 1969,
Amdahl had been named an IBM Fellow, that company's highest honor, and was made director of IBM's
Advanced Computing Systems (ACS) Laboratory in Menlo Park, California. In the 1960s he implemented a
milestone in computer technology: the concept of compatibility between systems. Amdahl left IBM
Corporation in the fall of 1970 to create more innovative mainframe computers.
Amdahl is perhaps best known for founding Amdahl Corporation, one of IBM's main competitors.
Amdahl Corporation was the first successful IBM-compatible CPU manufacturer, opening the door for
competition to advance technology. The world's first Large Scale Integrated (LSI) chips were developed
and made possible high-performance, air-cooled, rather than water-cooled, CPUs. In the first full year
of shipments, Amdahl shipped $96 million in product, the second full year $190 million, and the third
year $320 million. In 1979, he became Amdahl's Chairman Emeritus and a consultant to the company. He
retired in August 1980.
Amdahl went on to start three other companies. He co-founded Trilogy Systems Corporation in
1980, founded Andor International, Ltd. in l987 and co-founded Commercial Data Servers, Inc. (CDS) in
l994.
Amdahl has received many honors. He is an IEEE Fellow in both the United States and Great
Britain, a distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society, a member of the National Academy of
Engineering and named as one of the "1000 Makers of the 20th Century by The Times (London) in Sept.
1991.
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