Nathaniel Rochester (computer scientist)
Nathaniel Rochester ( born January 14, 1919 in Buffalo, New York, † June 8, 2001 ) was an American computer pioneer.
Rochester studied electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a bachelor 's degree in 1941. During World War II he worked in the development of radar in the Radiation Laboratory at MIT and then at Sylvana Electric Products on radar for the military. He was also involved in the Whirlwind computer project. From 1948 he was an engineer at IBM.
He led the development of the Tape Processing Machine with IBM ( for their variable WordSize architecture and the arithmetic unit of the 701 he received later, the IBM Outstanding Invention Award ).
He was with Jerrier A. Haddad of the main developers of the system IBM 701, the first general-purpose computer for mass production of IBM. He was responsible with Haddad system planning, and coordinated the cooperation of the Engineering Department in Poughkeepsie with the Applied Sciences Group of IBM. After that, he was the principal developer of the IBM 700 series (703, 704, 705 and start of 709 ). For these machines, he also wrote one of the earliest symbolic assembler.
In 1955 he went to IBM Research, and he led a group at IBM, which dealt with circuit theory and various topics in artificial intelligence, such as neural networks (which he 701 and 704 simulated with colleagues on the IBM), Pattern Recognition, Automated proof systems (Herbert Gelernter ), Games ( Arthur Samuel and his lady program, Alex Bernstein 's chess program ). With his support could John McCarthy (who had researched over the summer at IBM ) and Marvin Minsky in 1956 to perform the Dartmouth Conference in Artificial Intelligence. 1958 Compatible Rochester as a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology McCarthy in Lisp development. By 1960, however, IBM ended its involvement in artificial intelligence, since public attention irritated customers.
In 1961 he went to the Systems Division of IBM, and led a group that, among other things, the first two time-sharing systems developed by IBM ( QWIKTRAN CPS) and the first draft of PL / I.
Rochester was 1967 IBM Fellow. He dealt with IBM later among other circuits with tunnel diodes and programming languages.
In 1984 he received the computer as well Haddad Pioneer Award.