[SIGCIS-Members] Untold Origins of Cloud Computing / RISC History, and Computer Architecture

Tue May 1 08:34:30 PDT 2018

 Hi,

I have organized two talks in Silicon Valley with historical significance:

On Tue, May 8, *The Untold Origins of Cloud Computing
<https://californiaconsultants.org/event/the-untold-origins-of-cloud-computing/>*
event
will discuss the early time-sharing history of Tymshare, and will also
include some discussion of how the ARPANET became today's Internet.  These
topics are included in a new book by the speaker.

At a dinner meeting on Wed, June 13, David Patterson (recent Turing Award
winner) will give an important talk titled *A New Golden Age for Computer
Architecture*
<https://californiaconsultants.org/event/annual-cnsv-dinner-meeting-a-new-golden-age-for-computer-architecture/>,
which will include some important history of RISC.

Full details below - advance registration required.
_________________________
Brian A. Berg / bberg at StanfordAlumni.org
Berg Software Design
14500 Big Basin Way, Suite F, Saratoga, CA 95070 USA
Voice: 408.741.5010 / Cell: 408.568.2505
Consulting: Flash Memory/USB/Storage/Patents
visit the Storage Cornucopia: www.bswd.com
FMS Technical Chair: www.FlashMemorySummit.com
<http://www.flashmemorysummit.com/>
IEEE Milestone
<http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Milestones:List_of_IEEE_Milestones>
Coordinator
for Region 6 <http://www.ieee-region6.org/>
IEEE SCV Section <http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r6/scv/> Past Chair / IEEE-CNSV
<http://www.californiaconsultants.org/> Board Director
IEEE Silicon Valley Tech History Committee
<http://www.siliconvalleyhistory.com/> Chair

*
<https://californiaconsultants.org/event/intellectual-property-protecting-your-inventiveness/>Tue,
May 8, 7-9pm:
<https://californiaconsultants.org/event/the-untold-origins-of-cloud-computing/>*
<https://californiaconsultants.org/event/the-untold-origins-of-cloud-computing/>
*The Untold Origins of Cloud Computing
<https://californiaconsultants.org/event/the-untold-origins-of-cloud-computing/>*

The Cloud has become ubiquitous.  Long before today’s Cloud, though,
another name was used when accessing someone else’s computer: time
sharing.  Born in the Cold War in the aftermath of the first Russian Atomic
bomb, time-shared computers and networking appeared in the 1960s, became
widespread in the 1970s and matured in the 1980s.

Tymshare was an early time-sharing pioneer, deploying Tymnet as the first
independent Cloud-based services network in early 1972 by way of a database
running on an IBM 360 at the National Library of Medicine.  From that
humble beginning, Tymnet grew into a world-wide business-focused public
data network, connecting remote terminal users to distant computer users
for a wide range of computer applications.  As the business model shifted
from connecting a user to a computer to connecting together computers,
though, Tymnet’s failure to adapt made it fall victim to the Internet.

Based on his book The Tym Before … The Untold Origins of Cloud Computing
<https://www.amazon.com/Tym-Before-Untold-Origins-Computing/dp/1973430185/>,
*Nathan Gregory* will tell the story not only of Tymnet and Tymshare, but
also of the development of the ARPANET into today’s Internet.  Copies of
the book will be available for sale, and there will be an author signing.

*Nathan Gregory* held a variety of positions at Tymnet for over 12 years.
He left Tymnet ahead of its MCI acquisition and went to MFS Datanet, where
he helped build the ATM backbone that ultimately carried the Internet
traffic of the new Commercial Internet.  He then co-founded Northpoint
Communications.

Nathan now serves as CTO and Chief Scientist for a unique Internet Security
company named Reprivata.  He also writes about science fiction and
genealogy, and published Securing the Network: F. Scott Yeager and the Rise
of the Commercial Internet
<https://www.amazon.com/Securing-Network-Yeager-Commercial-Internet/dp/1520155581/>
in 2016.  More info, including family tales and fiction short stories that
are free to read, may be found here <http://www.chromosomequest.com/>.

*
<https://californiaconsultants.org/event/intellectual-property-protecting-your-inventiveness/>Wed,
June 13, 6-9pm:
<https://californiaconsultants.org/event/annual-cnsv-dinner-meeting-a-new-golden-age-for-computer-architecture/>*
<https://californiaconsultants.org/event/annual-cnsv-dinner-meeting-a-new-golden-age-for-computer-architecture/>
*IEEE-CNSV Dinner Meeting: A New Golden Age for Computer Architecture
<https://californiaconsultants.org/event/annual-cnsv-dinner-meeting-a-new-golden-age-for-computer-architecture/>*

6pm: event opens at China Stix, 2110 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA
<https://www.google.com/maps/place/2110%20El%20Camino%20Real,%20Santa%20Clara,%20CA%2095050>
(near
Target store)
6:45: Chinese Banquet Dinner with one beer, wine or drink of your choice
7:30ish: Presentation
PayPal pre-registration
<https://californiaconsultants.org/event/annual-cnsv-dinner-meeting-a-new-golden-age-for-computer-architecture/>
at $37 required

In the 1980s, Mead and Conway democratized chip design, and high-level
language programming surpassed assembly language programming. Together,
these made instruction set advances viable. Innovations like RISC,
superscalar and speculation ushered in a Golden Age of computer
architecture, and performance increased annually by 60%.  The ending of
Dennard Scaling and Moore’s Law crippled this path, and microprocessor
performance improved by only 3% in 2017! In addition to the poor
performance gains of modern microprocessors, Spectre recently demonstrated
timing attacks that leak information at high rates.

This talk will address how the freeing of architects from the chains of
proprietary instruction sets will provide opportunities in high-level,
domain-specific languages and architectures, and how the demands for
improved security will usher in a new Golden Age. Aided by an open-source
ecosystem, agily developed prototypes will demonstrate advances and thereby
accelerate commercial adoption. This should again allow rapid improvement
as in the last Golden Age, but this time in cost, energy, and security as
well as performance. What an exciting time to be a computer architect!

*Dr. David Patterson* is a Professor Emeritus at UC Berkeley, a
distinguished engineer at Google Brain, and Vice Chair of the Board of the
RISC-V Foundation. His most successful research projects have been Reduced
Instruction Set Computers (RISC), Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks
(RAID), and Network of Workstations (NOW). These projects helped lead to
multi-billion dollar industries, seven books, and about 40 honors,
including election to the National Academy of Engineering, the National
Academy of Sciences, and the Silicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame.

David also shares the ACM Turing award, the IEEE von Neumann Medal, and the
NEC C&C prize with John Hennessy,  past president of Stanford University
and co-author of two of his books. He received his A.B., M.S., and Ph.D.
degrees from UCLA.
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