Burton Smith
Burton J. Smith | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 21, 1941 |
| Died | April 2, 2018 (aged 77) |
| Occupation | Computer architect |
| Known for | Technical Fellow at Microsoft, Denelcor Heterogeneous Element Processor (HEP), co-founder of Tera Computer Company |
Burton J. Smith (March 21, 1941 – April 2, 2018) was a distinguished American computer architect and held the position of Technical Fellow at Microsoft.
Education
Smith completed his secondary education at the Cate School in 1958, demonstrating strong aptitude in mathematics and science. He began his higher education studying physics at Pomona College but later transferred to the University of New Mexico, where he graduated summa cum laude with a B.S.E.E. degree in 1967. Opting for MIT over Berkeley and Stanford for his doctoral studies due to financial support, he contributed to developing a database for MIT’s computer science department, marking one of his initial experiences with computing technology. He was awarded an Sc.D. from MIT in 1972.
Career
From 1970 until 1979, Smith held teaching positions at both MIT and the University of Colorado. Subsequently, he spent six years as vice president of research and development at Denelcor Inc., where he was the principal architect behind the Denelcor Heterogeneous Element Processor (HEP). Between 1985 and 1988, he served as a fellow at the Institute for Defense Analyses Supercomputing Research Center.
Smith co-established Tera Computer Company, acting as chief scientist and board member from 1988 through 2005, and served as chairman between 1988 and 1999. In 2000, Tera acquired the Cray Research business unit from Silicon Graphics and adopted the Cray Inc. name.
In December 2005, Smith joined Microsoft as a Technical Fellow, dedicating his efforts to advancing parallel computing and high-performance computing initiatives throughout the organization.
Awards
In recognition of his contributions, Smith was honored with the 1991 Eckert-Mauchly Award by the IEEE and ACM. The IEEE Computer Society presented him with the Seymour Cray Computer Science and Engineering Award in 2003, the same year he was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering. He also received the IEEE Computer Society Charles Babbage Award and was named a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2010. The Association for High Speed Computing awarded him the George Cotter Award in 2018 for his visionary leadership in data analytics.
Death
Smith passed away on April 2, 2018, at Regional Hospital within Highline Medical Center located in Burien, Washington. He is survived by his two daughters, Julia and Katherine (Ray), his granddaughter Erin, and his brother David. His wife Dorothy preceded him in death.