Alexia Massalin facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Alexia Massalin
|
|
|---|---|
| Born |
Henry Massalin
January 1, 1962 |
| Nationality | American |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Alma mater | Cooper Union School of Engineering, B.E. M.E., 1984 Columbia University, Ph.D., computer science, 1992 |
| Known for | Superoptimization |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Operating systems, optimizing compilers |
| Institutions | MicroUnity Systems Engineering, Inc. |
| Thesis | Synthesis: An Efficient Implementation of Fundamental Operating System Services (1992) |
| Doctoral advisor | Calton Pu |
Alexia Massalin (formerly Henry Massalin) is an American computer scientist and programmer. She is famous for inventing a cool idea called superoptimization. She also designed something called the Synthesis kernel. This was a special kind of computer program that made computers work much faster.
Contents
About Alexia Massalin
Early Life and Education
Alexia Massalin was born in 1962 in Astoria, Queens, New York. Her parents were refugees from Croatia. They moved to New York in the 1940s. Her father worked in construction.
After finishing high school, Alexia received a scholarship. She went to the Cooper Union School of Engineering in Manhattan. There, she earned both her bachelor's and master's degrees. Later, in 1992, she earned her Ph.D. in computer science. She studied at Columbia University with professor Calton Pu.
Her Career in Computing
In the 1980s, Alexia worked for a company called Philon Inc. This company was a startup in New York. They focused on making special programs called optimizing compilers. These programs help computer code run more efficiently.
In October 1992, Alexia joined MicroUnity. She became a research scientist there. Her job was to work on signal-processing parts and software design. She is still working on powerful computer chips today.
Her Big Ideas
What is Synthesis?
One of Alexia Massalin's most important inventions was Synthesis. She developed this while studying at Columbia University. Synthesis was a special part of an operating system. An operating system is like the main program that runs your computer. It manages everything, like opening apps and saving files.
Synthesis was designed to handle important tasks. It managed computer resources and security. It also controlled how the computer talked to its hardware. What made Synthesis special was how it made computer code faster. It did this by creating new, optimized code while the computer was running. This was a very new and clever idea at the time.
To help Synthesis work, Alexia also invented something called Quajects. These were like special building blocks for computer programs. They held both data and instructions for the computer.
What is Superoptimization?
Alexia Massalin is known for pioneering superoptimization. Imagine you have a set of instructions for a computer. Superoptimization is like finding the absolute best way to do those instructions. It's about making the computer run as fast as possible. This is done by finding the shortest or most efficient sequence of computer commands. This idea helps make software incredibly quick.
Personal Life
Alexia Massalin is highly respected in the computer world. In 1996, a magazine called Wired wrote about her. The author, Gary Andrew Poole, even said she "could be the Einstein of our time." She was also known for being friendly and offering piggyback rides to people she met. This included famous computer scientists like Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson. She also met Marvin Minsky, who was a pioneer in artificial intelligence.
