Josep Torrellas
Josep Torrellas | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1963 Montblanc, Spain |
| Occupation(s) | Professor, Researcher |
| Years active | 1992–present |
| Known for | Speculative multithreading, multiprocessor systems, architectural enhancements for software debugging and reliability |
Josep Torrellas (born 1963 in Montblanc, Spain) holds the position of Professor and Willett Faculty Scholar within the Department of Computer Science, and he is also a research faculty member at the Universal Parallel Computing Research Center at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign. His investigative work centers around computer architecture, with particular emphasis on speculative multithreading, the design of multiprocessor systems, integration between processors and memory, as well as architectural enhancements to improve software debugging capabilities and system reliability. He has made notable contributions to the multiprocessor developments of the Stanford DASH and Illinois Cedar projects and has led initiatives such as the Illinois Aggressive COMA and FlexRAM Intelligent Memory efforts.
Torrellas has obtained considerable research funding from agencies including the NSF, DARPA, and the DOE. The Aggressive COMA project was selected as one of the "Eight Point-Design Studies," a DARPA, NSF, NSA, and NASA-backed program in the mid-1990s aimed at advancing petascale computing technologies. As principal investigator, he has overseen multiple multimillion-dollar NSF grants along with medium-scale ITR awards. His leadership extends to DARPA-sponsored projects such as "Polymorphous Computer Architectures" (PCA) and "High Productivity Computing Systems" (HPCS), where he played an instrumental role in influencing IBM's PERCS multiprocessor (POWER7) design. Additionally, he participates actively in DOE’s Extreme Scale Computation initiative.
Following the completion of his PhD in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University in 1992, Torrellas joined the University of Illinois faculty. He also completed a sabbatical period at IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center. He is recognized as a Fellow of both IEEE and ACM, is affiliated with the National Computational Science Alliance (NCSA), and is involved with DOE's Illinois Center for the Simulation of Advanced Rockets (CSAR). Presently, he serves as Chair of the IEEE Technical Committee on Computer Architecture (TCCA), acts as Associate Editor for ACM Transactions on Architecture and Code Optimization (TACO), and contributes to the Advisory Board for the ECE Department at University of Rochester. Previously, from 1998 to 2005, he held roles as Vice-Chairman and Advisory Board member for IEEE TCCA. Among his honors are an NSF Young Investigator Award, NSF RIA, IBM Partnership Award, and the 2021 Harry H. Goode Memorial Award.