Professor John Hennessy and Professor David Patterson (University of California, Berkeley) have received the BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Information and Communications Technologies. Their citation reads, "for turning computer architecture into a science and designing the processors that power today’s devices. […] They conceived the scientific field of computer architecture, motivated a systematic and quantitative design approach to system performance, created a style of reduced instruction set processors that has transformed how industry builds computer systems, and have made transformative advancements in computer reliability and in large-scale system coherence”. 

“Professors John Hennessy and David Patterson are synonymous with the inception and formalization of this field,” the citation reads. “Before their work, the design of computers – and in particular the measurement of computer performance – was more of an art than a science, and practitioners lacked a set of repeatable principles to conceptualize and evaluate computer designs. Patterson and Hennessy provided, for the first time, a conceptual framework that gave the field a grounded approach towards measuring a computer’s performance, energy efficiency, and complexity.”

The new laureates’ scientific contributions had their didactic parallel in a landmark textbook, Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach, which three decades on from its first release and after six editions with regularly updated content, is still considered “the bible” for the discipline in universities around the world.

Please join us in congratulating John on his extraordinary contributions to teaching, industry, and innovation.

Excerpted from: BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards, February 2021.