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RIP: Another two computer pioneers, Gordon Bell and Robert Denard
Gordon Bell passed away. He was an early employee of Digital Equipment Corporation and a key creator of the PDP-1 mini-computer, which launched an amazing series of computers. He also was the "namesake of the ACM's prestigious Gordon Bell Prize, created to spur innovations in parallel processing"
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/05/gordon-bell-an-architect-of-our-digital-age-dies-at-age-89/
https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/24/05/21/2058226/gordon-bell-an-architect-of-our-digital-age-dies-at-age-89
Robert Denard was quite a clever bloke. He figured out how to pair a transistor with a capacitor to store a bit of rewriteable memory.
Prior to Denard's discovery, memory was stored in magnetic cores. It was a bulky and balky process that was pretty low density. What Denard did pioneered the development of the internet in our pockets.
https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/robert-dennard-father-of-dram-is-deceased-also-known-for-his-foundational-dennard-scaling-theory
https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/05/17/1812210/robert-dennard-inventor-of-dram-dies-at-91
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/05/gordon-bell-an-architect-of-our-digital-age-dies-at-age-89/
https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/24/05/21/2058226/gordon-bell-an-architect-of-our-digital-age-dies-at-age-89
Robert Denard was quite a clever bloke. He figured out how to pair a transistor with a capacitor to store a bit of rewriteable memory.
Prior to Denard's discovery, memory was stored in magnetic cores. It was a bulky and balky process that was pretty low density. What Denard did pioneered the development of the internet in our pockets.
https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/robert-dennard-father-of-dram-is-deceased-also-known-for-his-foundational-dennard-scaling-theory
https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/05/17/1812210/robert-dennard-inventor-of-dram-dies-at-91
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My first computer-related job was at a game company and their main computer was a Raytheon that had magnetic core memory. This was around '84. It was pretty trippy. Punched tape for loading programs and saving data.
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Very much so. Hard to imagine anything remotely like what we have today without them.