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October 1993

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July 1993

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April 1993

Volume 1, Issue 1
January 1993

PARALLEL COMPUTING PIONEERS
David J. Kuck

Founder and Chairman of the Board, Kuck and Associates, Inc.


David J. Kuck has forged new ground in the development of parallel computation from the time he first became involved in the field more than three decades ago. Kuck is considered the founder of parallelizing compilers, and has made other major contributions to the field of parallel computation during his long and distinguished career as a researcher, professor, software company founder, and product developer. "Initially, I became interested in parallel computing as an advanced research topic," says Kuck. "Over the years, I became more convinced that the eventual limits of sequential hardware would require parallelism in architectures. Today, the need for practical parallelism is a reality, and better software is an urgent need that I am trying to satisfy."

Kuck received his B.S.E.E. at the University of Michigan (1959), and his M.S. and Ph.D. in engineering at Northwestern University (1960 and 1963). He was a Ford Postdoctoral Fellow and assistant professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before joining the University of Illinois Department of Computer Science as assistant professor in 1965. In 1986, Kuck moved to the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as a professor. He served as the director of the Center for Supercomputing Research and Development (CSRD) from 1984 to 1992. In 1993, Kuck left the university to work full-time at Kuck and Associates, Inc. (KAI), an optimization software company he founded in 1979.

While at CSRD, Kuck was closely involved in the development of Cedar, a system built to demonstrate that scalable SMP parallel processing is practical across a wide range of applications. Efforts were concentrated on developing effective methods of sharing memory and parallel interconnection networks, as well as parallel languages, programming environments, and restructuring compiler and operating system issues. In 1969, Kuck initiated work on the Parafrase system, a vectorizing/parallelizing compiler implemented as a source-to-source code restructurer. In 1979, he and his collaborators at KAI developed KAP, a software tool that makes Fortran and C programs run faster. KAP is targeted at Fortran and C compilers to automatically optimize user code, producing the fastest code possible for cache-based workstations and PCs, parallel systems, and other advanced architecture computers. In addition, Kuck has developed other systems at the CSRD and at the companies and organizations he has consulted with throughout his career, including Burroughs, Alliant, Sequent, Univac, and IBM.

Kuck's current research and development activities at KAI include research in delivering practical parallelism, development of parallel software engineering techniques, and development of restructuring compilers for high-performance sequential and parallel systems. He is also developing advanced software for performance analysis and improvement, and promoting open performance systems and computational science and engineering. "Today, tools are needed to enable applications experts to exploit parallel systems without becoming computer experts," says Kuck. "KAI has developed the KAP/Pro Toolset to provide a parallel software engineering discipline for those people. My hope is that these programmers will be able to provide practical parallel applications for end users of many types."

Kuck's latest book, High Performance Computing: Challenges for Future Generations, has recently been released by Oxford University Press. He is also author of the book, Structure of Computers and Computations, and serves or has served as editor or editorial board member of 13 technical journals. Kuck has received numerous awards throughout his career, including the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Emanual R. Piore Award (1987), Alumni Merit Award for Northwestern University (1989), and Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)-IEEE Eckert-Mauchly Award (1993). He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, ACM, and IEEE, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.


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