2017 ACM A.M. Turing Award
ACM is pleased to announce today that John L. Hennessy, former President of Stanford University and David A. Patterson, retired Professor of the UC Berkeley will received the 2017 ACM A.M. Turing Award. The award recognizes the impact and enduring importance of their work developing a systematic and quantitative approach to designing faster, lower power, and reduced instruction set computer (RISC) microprocessors. Generations of architects have used their groundbreaking approach for myriad projects from industry to academia. Today, 99% of the more than 16 billion microprocessors produced annually for smartphones, tablets, and embedded IoT devices are RISC processors.
Attesting to the impact of Hennessy and Patterson’s work is the assessment of Bill Gates, principal founder of Microsoft Corporation, that their contributions “have proven to be fundamental to the very foundation upon which an entire industry flourished.”
The #ACMTuringAward recognizes major contributions of lasting importance in computing. Since its inception in 1966, it has become the most prestigious award in the field, often referred to as the “Nobel Prize of computing.” Hennessy and Patterson will formally receive the 2017 ACM A.M. Turing Award at ACM’s annual awards banquet on Saturday, June 23, 2018 in San Francisco, California.