VLSI Archive News and Updates

VLSI Archive News & Updates:

[V 12-08-12]

4-26-12: Bert Sutherland reflects on the VLSI revolution:

On April 26, 2012, Bert Sutherland discussed the VLSI revolution and the origins of MOSIS in an invited talk at the celebration of USC-ISI's 40th anniversary. The slides for Bert's talk are posted in the VLSI Archive and can be cited and accessed as follows:

W. R. (Bert) Sutherland, “Faith, Funds, & Fate: Prerequisites for the development and transfer of new technology”, Presentation at the celebration of the 40th anniversary of USC-ISI, Marina del Rey, California, April 26, 2012.

http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MOSIS/ISI_40th/FFF.ppsx

http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MOSIS/ISI_40th/FFF.pdf

For more about "USC Viterbi’s Information Sciences Institute turns 40", see these links:

http://news.usc.edu/#!/article/34185/usc-viterbis-information-sciences-institute-turns-40/

http://viterbi.usc.edu/news/news/2012/usc-viterbi-s356337.htm

http://www.flickr.com/photos/universityofsoutherncalifornia/7129029127/in/photostream/

Photo by Steve Cohn

Pictured here at the 40th anniversary celebration are (from left): Yannis C. Yortsos, dean, USC Viterbi School of Engineering; ISI executive director Herbert Schorr; University Professor George Bekey, professor emeritus of the USC Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering, Department of Computer Science and Department of Electrical Engineering; USC president C. L. Max Nikias; USC Institute for Creative Technologies director Bill Swartout; Robert Kahn, chairman, president and CEO, Corporation for National Research Initiatives; Bert Sutherland, former research lab manager, Sun Microsystems, Xerox PARC Science Systems and BBN Computer Science.

11-08-11: Lynn Conway's memoir about her early work at IBM-ACS is published:

This memoir is about my work at IBM-ACS in the 1960’s, work that formed the foundation for my later work in VLSI. The memoir resulted from an in-depth investigation during 2010-2011 to finally answer many questions about what happened back then. This fascinating investigation turned up all sorts of surprising, even some astonishing answers.

I was helped in the work by my colleague and ACS veteran Brian Randell, Emeritus Professor of CS at Newcastle, who also had many unanswered questions about ACS – and by Mark Smotherman, Prof. of CS at Clemson, who’s an expert on ACS history.

The resulting memoir was published as a chapter in the Festschrift published in November 2011 on the occasion of Brian’s 75th Birthday. It’s a rather complex story, and might take a couple of careful reads through it to figure it out. But if you have the patience, I think you’ll find it quite a read, especially at a meta-level:

L. Conway, "IBM-ACS: Reminiscences and Lessons Learned from a 1960's Supercomputer Project"; in: C. B. Jones, J. L. Lloyd, (Eds.), Dependable and Historic Computing: Essays Dedicated to Brian Randell on the Occasion of his 75th Birthday, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2011, pp.185-224.
http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/Memoirs/Lynn_Conway%27s_ACS_Reminiscences.pdf

6-04-11: Dick Lyon and Steve Trimberger honored as ACM Fellows:

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) formally recognized the 2010 Fellows at its annual Awards Ceremony on June 4, 2011, in San Jose, CA. Among those honored with this prestigious award were Xerox PARC VLSI research veterans Dick Lyon and Steve Trimberger. They join Gaetano Borriello, who was elected in 2009:

Steve Trimberger (l) and Dick Lyon (r), ACM Awards Ceremony, June 4, 2011.

Click on photo for higher-res image Photo by Steve Trimberger

The ACM citations for these 2010 Fellow Awards are as follows:

Richard F. Lyon: Google Inc. (Homepage, Wikipedia, Google)
For contributions to machine perception and for the invention of the optical mouse

Stephen Trimberger: Xilinx Research Labs (EE Times)
For contributions to the design of programmable logic and reconfigurable architectures, and for the development of design automation tools that enable their use

The citation for Gaetano's 2009 Fellow Award is as follows:

Gaetano Borriello: University of Washington (Homepage)
For the design, realization, and integration of embedded and ubiquitous computing systems.

01-20-10: Lynn Conway: 2009 Computer Pioneer Award Recipient (video, more)

7-03-09: Doug Fairbairn posted a video on YouTube of a demonstration of ICARUS from 1978-79

2-09-09: The CSIRO VLSI Research Program and AusMPC (cont.): Photographs from 1982

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