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EAC FOCUS
Steven J. Wallach
Senior Vice President of Technology,
Member of the Board of Directors, and Co-Founder,
Convex Computer Corporation Member, CRPC External
Advisory Committee
Steve Wallach's interest in computing began while he was an
undergraduate at Polytechnic University. "The first programming course
I took, FORTRAN II and MAP for the 7040, really turned me on," he said.
"I took courses in logic design and switching theory and was still
interested. The rest just came naturally."
Since that time, Wallach has become a leader in high-performance
computing, founding the Convex Computer Corporation (a major
manufacturer of scalable parallel systems based in Richardson, TX) with
Robert J. Paluck in 1982. Wallach was the chief designer of the Convex
C1, dubbed "the world's first affordable supercomputer," and is
responsible for the overall technical design of Convex's MPP effort.
Convex maintains its success by providing solutions at the high and the
low ends. "Convex's objectives are to have products that fill in all
places in the Branscomb pyramid, other than desktop workstations," said
Wallach.
Before Convex, Wallach was Manager of Advanced Development at Data
General, where he was responsible for the architecture of the MV series
of computers. Much of his work is chronicled in the book The Soul of a
New Machine.
Among his professional interests, Wallach serves on the advisory council
of the Rice University School of Engineering, on the Department of
Commerce Computer Systems Technical Advisory Committee, and on the
board of directors of Polytechnic University, where he received the
1993 Distinguished Alumnus Award. He was also recently elected to the
National Academy of Engineering. Wallach received a B.S.E.E. from
Polytechnic University, an M.S.E.E. from the University of
Pennsylvania, and an M.B.A. from Boston University.
On the state of high-performance computing, Wallach commented, "We must
have scalable parallel processing in a user-friendly manner. All
vendors of high-performance computing are now using off-the- shelf RISC
chips and the servers using these processors must also be software
compatible with the desktops using these chips. This leverages the
applications and middleware (i.e., nfs, motiff, etc.) that comes with
desktop compatibility. The government provided the initial momentum for
HPCC. Now it is up to the private sector to keep it going."
"The CRPC is providing the applications, software tools, compilers,
language design, and algorithms to make scalable parallel processing
the dominant form of high-end computing. Its greatest strength lies in
the management team and structure that has permitted a geographical team
of world- class researchers to work on projects." The CRPC's External
Advisory Committee, said Wallach, provides "guidance in industrial and
academic needs that the CRPC can help meet."
Wallach noted that many of the previous efforts to advance vector
supercomputing have provided a software and numerical foundation for
advancements in scalable parallel processing. With several researchers
who have helped to provide this foundation, the CRPC is now deeply
involved in the "second coming of high- speed computing."
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