Legendary pc scientist Gordon Bell handed away final Friday at his house in Coronado, CA. He was 89. The New York Instances has a pleasant tribute piece. An extended-time pioneer with Digital Tools Corp, he pushed laborious for growth of decrease value, high-performing alternate options to the IBM mainframe. Lately, he was most acquainted to the HPC neighborhood due to the celebrated ACM Gordon Bell Prize, named in his honer, and introduced on the annual SC convention annually.
Right here’s an excerpt from the NYT article:
![](https://www.hpcwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/gordon-bell-200x300.jpg)
“C. Gordon Bell, a know-how visionary whose pc designs for Digital Tools Company fueled the emergence of the minicomputer business within the Nineteen Sixties, died on Friday at his house in Coronado, Calif. He was 89.
“The trigger was pneumonia, his household stated in an announcement.
“Known as the “Frank Lloyd Wright of computer systems” by Datamation journal, Mr. Bell was the grasp architect within the effort to create smaller, reasonably priced, interactive computer systems that could possibly be clustered right into a community. A virtuoso at pc structure, he constructed the primary time-sharing pc and championed efforts to construct the Ethernet. He was amongst a handful of influential engineers whose designs shaped the important bridge between the room-size fashions of the mainframe period and the appearance of the non-public pc.
“After stints at a number of different startup ventures, Mr. Bell turned the pinnacle of the Nationwide Science Basis’s computer systems and data science and engineering group, the place he directed the hassle to hyperlink the world’s supercomputers right into a high-speed community that led on to the event of the trendy web. He later joined Microsoft’s nascent analysis lab, the place he remained for about 20 years earlier than being named researcher emeritus.”
HPCwire interviewed Bell again in Feb 2023 on the creation of the particular ACM Gordon Bell Prize for Local weather Modeling and he made is view on the significance of acknowledging and combating local weather change very clear:
“One of many large issues that’s been occurring is simply not admitting that local weather is artifical,” Gordon Bell informed HPCwire. “Perhaps one of many nice contributions to computing has been with the ability to mannequin nicely sufficient to persuade people who it’s artifical.”
“The prize this time… I wakened offended about – I shouldn’t say offended about, however simply disillusioned [that] there’s not a very good ledger about what’s occurring right here,” Bell stated. “We’re not at any degree – I don’t suppose we’re at a great nationwide degree but as to: what are our commitments, and the way are we doing vis-à-vis the commitments? To me, it’s so imprecise at this level. That’s one side. The prize I hope will assist somewhat bit in that. … With a purpose to get change occurring, you actually must assign what you’re doing, and I simply am so disillusioned. It’s such an enormous drawback.”
The interview by Oliver Peckham was recorded and value a pay attention.
Bell will likely be missed.