[Obsolete] Francis E. Allen, a computer optimizer and the first female computer scientist to win the Turing Prize, died
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IBM announced that Francis E. Allen, a female computer scientist known as a compiler optimization guru, died on August 4, 2020, just her birthday. I was 88 years old.
Remembering Frances E. Allen | IBM Research Blog
https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2020/08/remembering-frances-allen/
Allen was born in 1932 on a farm in Peru, New York. After graduating from New York State Teacher Training School, Allen received a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1954 and worked as a math teacher at a local school. Then, in 1956, Mr. Allen received a master's degree in computer science from the University of Michigan.
In 1957, Allen joined IBM Research in Poughkeepsie, NY as a programmer to repay his scholarship. He said he was working on teaching FORTRAN employees an FORTRAN that had just been developed. He said he had planned to stay with IBM Research until he repayed his scholarship, but as a result, Allen will devote his entire life to IBM.
Allen's achievements lay the foundation for compiler optimization techniques. Allen has been involved in compiler research since 1957, and announced 'Program Optimization' in 1966, showing the basic construction of program analysis and systematization of compiler optimization. Allen contributed to high-performance computing.
'As a pioneer of compiler construction and optimization algorithms, Allen made a significant contribution to the world of computing. Her work on interprocedural analysis and automatic parallelization continues to be at the forefront of compiler research. We have also succeeded in putting computer science into practice by introducing Allen's technology into the IBM COBOL compiler , IBM Parallel FORTRAN, and others.'
In addition, Mr. Allen was selected as a designer involved in the development of the system ' IBM 7950 ' delivered to the United States National Security Agency (NSA) from the late 1950s to the early 1960s, and the dedicated programming language Alpha I am involved in design and construction.
He was also involved in IBM's Advanced Computing System (ACS), designed and constructed compiler optimization components that were machine and language independent, and in 1972 wrote a paper entitled ' (PDF file) A Catalog of Optimizing Transformations '. For the first time, systematized compiler optimization conversion. This paper was published jointly with John Cock , an IBM colleague who is also known as the 'father of RISC architecture.' The systematization of compiler optimization was highly praised, and in 2006, Allen received the Turing Prize , the so-called “Nobel Prize in Computer Science”, for the first time as a woman.
In addition, at the beginning of 2020, the IEEE has established the 'Francis E. Allen Award' and announced that it will be awarded from 2022.
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