Computer History Museum

Hennessy, John L. oral history

Dr. John Hennessy of Stanford University in an interview with John Mashey describes how his academic career began, his role in helping initiate some of the major advances in computer science, and his rise through academia to become President of Stanford University. Hennessy began his scientific work writing a thesis in real time programming and after joining Stanford University in 1977 became involved in advanced computing design. That lead to Hennessy's interest in VLSI which led to developing MIPS technology. While running the Stanford Computer Systems Lab, Hennessy took a leave of absence to co-found MIPS, Inc.. When MIPS was acquired by Silicon Graphics, Hennessy returned to Stanford and became head of the Stanford Computer Science Department in 1994. Hennessy also partnered with David Patterson to write the classic textbook: 'A Quantitative Approach: Computer Architecture'. Rising to greater positions of responsibility, Hennessy became Stanford's Dean of Engineering in 1996 and then Provost succeeding Condoleezza Rice in 1999. In 2000, John Hennessy was named President of Stanford University.

Item Details

Date
2007-09-20 (Made)
Type
Document
Catalogue number
102658153
Organization
Computer History Museum
People
John Hennessy (Interviewee)
Bob Sanguedolce (Editor)
John Mashey (Interviewer)
Category
Transcript
Extent
28 p.
Place of publication
USA/CA/Mountain View
Language
English
Acquisition number
X4149.2008
Subject
"A Quantitative Approach: Computer Architecture", Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI), DARPA, CISC, RISC, MIPS, Silicon Compiler, C (Computer Program Language), Computer Science, Semiconductor History, UNIX, DEC VAX, VLSI, Stanford University, Parallel Processing (Electronic computers), Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)
Archive collection
CHM Oral History collection
Archive hierarchy
Oral History collection