DLS - Fran Allen

Fran Allen

High Performance Computers and Compilers: A Personal Perspective
 

Abstract: The talk will describe a related sequence of projects including some early, very bold projects that profoundly influenced high performance computing even as some of them failed. The talk includes a personal perspective of what worked and what didn't, the historical threads of some ideas and the lessons learned. The talk concludes by identifying some current compiler challenges and the need for a new focus on new compilers.

Biography: Fran Allen's specialty is compilers and program optimization for high performance computers. Soon after joining IBM Research as a programmer in 1957 with a University of Michigan master's degree in mathematics, Fran found the technical goal that would drive her career: Enable both programmer productivity and program performance in the development of computer applications. One result of this goal was that Fran was the recipient of ACM's 2006 Turing Award "For pioneering contributions to the theory and practice of optimizing compiler techniques that laid the foundation for modern optimizing compilers and automatic parallel execution."

Fran is a member of the American Philosophical Society and the National Academy of Engineers, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, ACM, IEEE, and the Computer History Museum. Fran has several honorary doctorate degrees and has served on numerous national technology boards including CISE at the National Science Foundation and CSTB for the National Research Council. Fran is an active mentor, an advocate for technical women in computing, an environmentalist and an explorer.