Реферат: Gene Amdahl Essay Research Paper

360 series of mainframe computers. The IBM System 360 was based on

the Stretch, which Amdahl had worked on in 1955. The 360 series was one

of the greatest success stories in the computer industry and became the

main ingredient to IBM’s enormous profitability in the late 1960s.

Leaving IBM…again

Amdahl became an IBM Fellow and was able to pursue his own research projects.

In 1969, he was director of IBM’s

Advanced Computing Systems Laboratory in Menlo Park, California. He

recommended that the laboratory be shut down, which IBM did, and presented

his ideas about the internal barriers that prevented IBM from shooting

for the high end of computer development. Although his ideas were accepted,

IBM executives refused to change policies and Amdahl left IBM again.

In 1970, Amdahl formed his own company, Amdahl

Corporation, in Sunnyvale, California. His plan was to compete head-to-head

with IBM in the mainframe market. Most industry analysts considered this

to be career suicide and gave his start-up company very little chance

of surviving. But survive it did, and actually prospered. Instead of creating

a rival system to IBM, Amdahl created discounted computers that could

be substituted for name brand models and run the same software. Basically,

he designed the first computer clones, known then as "plug-to-plug

compatibles." Amdahl became the most celebrated entrepreneur in the

computer industry for awhile. The only major criticism that was raised

about Amdahl Corporation at the time was that Amdahl took start-up money

from Fujitsu Ltd. of Japan in exchange for American mainframe technology.

In 1975, Amdahl Corporation shipped its first computer, the Amdahl 470

V/6. Over the next few years, Amdahl and IBM leap-frogged each other with

faster, smaller, and cheaper computers. In 1979, Gene Amdahl began moving

away from Amdahl Corporation when he resigned his post as chairman. He

became chairman emeritus for less than a year, leaving Amdahl Corporation