Gene Amdahl

Gene Amdahl (1922–2015) was an American computer architect and entrepreneur who designed influential mainframes and formulated Amdahl’s law, which describes limits on parallel speedup.

Fred Brooks: Fred Brooks was an American computer scientist who led IBM’s System/360 development and wrote about large software projects. Brooks and Amdahl worked on the System/360, though they later differed over its architecture.
Mainframe computer: A mainframe computer is a powerful system built to process large volumes of transactions and support many users reliably. Mainframes were the systems Amdahl designed at IBM and later through his own company.
Amdahl's law: Amdahl’s law estimates the maximum speedup from parallel processing when some fraction of a task must remain serial. Amdahl formulated this limit to show how serial work constrains parallel gains.
IBM System/360 architecture: The IBM System/360 architecture is the common instruction and software framework shared by the System/360 family. Its compatibility strategy helped establish a durable model for commercial computer families.
Amdahl's law (1967): Amdahl’s 1967 paper formalized the limit on parallel speedup imposed by a computation’s serial portion. The paper presented the principle that became the best-known result associated with Amdahl.
Tom Watson Jr.: Thomas J. Watson Jr. led IBM as its president and chief executive during the development of the System/360. Watson backed the System/360 program that Amdahl helped design.
IBM System/360: The IBM System/360 is a family of compatible mainframe computers announced in 1964. Amdahl was a principal architect of this landmark compatible computer family.
Parallel computing: Parallel computing uses multiple processing elements to execute parts of a computation simultaneously. Amdahl’s law became a standard way to reason about the limits of parallel systems.
IBM System/370: The IBM System/370 is a mainframe family announced in 1970 as the successor to the System/360. It extended the compatible mainframe lineage that Amdahl helped establish.
University of Wisconsin–Madison: The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university in Madison, Wisconsin. Amdahl earned his physics bachelor’s degree there before pursuing graduate study in Minnesota.

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IBM 7030 StretchRelated: Amdahl worked on Stretch and later drew on its design experience in computer architecture.