10 Nov
2019
10 Nov
'19
4:09 a.m.
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
11 Nov
11 Nov
9:05 p.m.
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(a)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
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12 Nov
12 Nov
3:38 a.m.
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
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2 comments
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Clem Cole -
Dave Horsfall