Gene Amdahl

Gene Myron Amdahl (born November 16, 1922) is an American computer architect and hi-tech entrepreneur of Norwegian descent, chiefly known for his work on mainframe computers at International Business Machines (IBM) and later his own companies. He is perhaps best known for formulating Amdahl's law, a fundamental theory of parallel computing.

1979–now: Entrepreneur

Amdahl left his namesake company in August 1979 to set up Trilogy Systems. With over US$200 million in funds Trilogy was aimed at designing an integrated chip for even cheaper mainframes. The chip development failed within months of the company's $60 million public offering; thereafter, the company focused on developing its VLSI technology and, when that project failed, in 1985 Trilogy merged into Elxsi Corporation. Elxsi also did poorly and Amdahl left in 1989, having already founded his next venture, Andor International, in 1987. Andor hoped to compete in the mid-sized mainframe market, using improved production techniques to make smaller, more efficient machines. Production problems and strong competition led the company into bankruptcy by 1995.

Related Topics:
August - 1979 - Trilogy Systems - Integrated chip - 1985 - Elxsi Corporation - Andor International - 1987 - 1995

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Ever determined, Amdahl co-founded Commercial Data Servers in 1996, again in Sunnyvale, and again developing mainframe-like machines but this time with new super-cooled processor designs and aimed at physically smaller systems. One such machine, from 1997, was the ESP/490 (Enterprise Server Platform/490), an enhancement of IBM's P/390 of the System/390 family. Since then, CDS has changed its name and narrowed its focus. As Xbridge Systems, the company now builds connectivity software to link mainframes and open systems. (As of early 2005, however, Xbridge's website did not list Amdahl as a member of their current management team.)

Related Topics:
Commercial Data Servers - 1996 - System/390 - Xbridge Systems

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In November 2004, Amdahl was appointed to the Board of Advisors of Massively Parallel Technologies. The absence of an otherwise noticeable web presence after the turn of the millennium suggested that he had scaled back his industry involvement to an advisory capacity.

Related Topics:
2004 - Massively Parallel Technologies

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