John Cocke
| John Cocke | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 30, 1925 Charlotte, North Carolina |
| Died | July 16, 2002 (aged 77) Valhalla, New York |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Computer Science |
| Institutions | IBM |
| Known for | RISC |
| Notable awards | ACM Turing Award National Medal of Science |
John Cocke (May 30, 1925 – July 16, 2002) was an American computer scientist recognized for his large contribution to computer architecture and optimizing compiler design. He is considered by many to be "the father of RISC architecture."[1]
He attended Duke University, where he received his Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1946 and his Ph.D. in Mathematics in 1953. Cocke spent his entire career as an industrial researcher for IBM, from 1956 to 1992.
Perhaps the project where his innovations were most noted was in the IBM 801 minicomputer, where his realization that matching the design of the architecture's instruction set to the relatively simple instructions actually emitted by compilers could allow high performance at a low cost.
He is one of the inventors of CYK algorithm (C for Cocke).
Cocke won the Eckert-Mauchly Award in 1985, ACM Turing Award in 1987, the National Medal of Technology in 1991 and the National Medal of Science in 1994,[2] The Franklin Institute's Certificate of Merit in 1996, the Seymour Cray Computer Science and Engineering Award in 1999, and the The Benjamin Franklin Medal in 2000.
He was born in Charlotte, North Carolina and died in Valhalla, New York.
[edit] References
- ^ Schofield, Jack (2002-07-27). "John Cocke". The Guardian (Guardian Media Group). http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2002/jul/27/obituaries.games. Retrieved 2011-05-10. "Cocke's idea was to use fewer instructions, but design chips that performed simple instructions very quickly. [...] Later, this approach became known as reduced instruction set computing (Risc) [...]"
- ^ National Science Foundation - The President's National Medal of Science
[edit] External links
- IBM obituary
- Duke profile from 1988 By Eileen Bryn
- Interview transcript
- IEEE John von Neumann Medal Recipients
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- 1925 births
- 2002 deaths
- American computer scientists
- Computer hardware engineers
- Computer pioneers
- Computer designers
- Duke University alumni
- American mathematicians
- 20th-century mathematicians
- Turing Award laureates
- National Medal of Science laureates
- National Medal of Technology recipients
- Seymour Cray Computer Engineering Award recipients
- IBM employees
