Gerrit Blaauw facts for kids
Gerrit Anne "Gerry" Blaauw (born July 17, 1924 – died March 21, 2018) was a smart computer scientist from the Netherlands. He is famous for helping to design the important IBM System/360 computers. He worked on this big project with other brilliant people like Fred Brooks and Gene Amdahl.
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A Young Scientist's Journey
Gerrit Blaauw was born in The Hague, Netherlands. He studied at the Delft University of Technology and earned his first degree in 1946.
In 1947, Gerrit won a special scholarship. It was paid for by Thomas J. Watson, who was the head of IBM. First, Gerrit spent a year at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania. Then, he went to Harvard University.
Studying at Harvard
At Harvard, Gerrit earned his master's degree in 1949. He then got his PhD in 1952. His teacher was Howard H. Aiken, who invented an early computer called the Mark I. While at Harvard, Gerrit helped design other early computers. These were the Mark III and Mark IV. He also met Fred Brooks there, who later became a key partner at IBM.
Working at IBM
After finishing his studies in 1952, Gerrit Blaauw went back to the Netherlands. He worked on the second ARRA computer at the Mathematical Centre.
In 1955, he returned to the United States. He started working at IBM's labs in Poughkeepsie. There, he worked with Fred Brooks on many important computer projects.
Designing New Computers
Gerrit was a designer for the IBM 7030 STRETCH project. He also worked on the IBM 8000 series. For this series, he designed a special "paging system" in the early 1960s.
His biggest work was on the System/360 project. This computer system was announced in 1964. Gerrit helped make a very important decision for the System/360. He argued successfully for using an 8-bit computer system. This was instead of a 6-bit system. An 8-bit system means the computer handles information in larger chunks. This makes it more powerful.
The "Blaauw Box" and Virtual Memory
Gerrit also designed a special system called the "Blaauw Box." This system helped computers manage their memory. It was not used in the first System/360. But a similar idea was later used in the IBM System/360-67 computer.
This system was called Dynamic Address Translation (DAT). It helped create some of the first useful virtual memory systems. Virtual memory lets a computer use its storage space as if it were more main memory. This makes the computer seem to have more memory than it really does. The Model 67 was used by businesses starting in 1968. Later, all models of the IBM System/370 computer line used similar memory systems.
Later Life and Legacy
After leaving IBM, Gerrit Blaauw became a computer science professor in the Netherlands. He retired in 1989 from the Universiteit Twente. In 1982, he became a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In 1997, he wrote a book with Fred Brooks. It was called Computer Architecture: Concepts and Evolution. Gerrit Blaauw passed away in Utrecht in 2018.
Gerrit Blaauw was a Christian. After he retired, he spent time thinking about how science and faith connect. He wrote a small book about this topic.
Selected Publications
- Blaauw, Gerrit A. Digital system implementation. Prentice Hall PTR, 1976.
- Blaauw, Gerrit A., and Frederick P. Brooks Jr. Computer architecture: concepts and evolution. Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., 1997.
- Blaauw, Gerrit A. Scripture and Science: An Unexpected Harmony. 2014. Published online.
Selected articles
- Brooks, Frederick P., Gerrit A. Blaauw, and Wilfried Buchholz. "Processing data in bits and pieces." IRE Transactions on Electronic Computers 2 (1959): 118-124.
- Amdahl, G. M.; Blaauw, G. A.; Brooks, F. P. (1964). "Architecture of the IBM System/360". IBM Journal of Research and Development 8 (2): 87–101. doi:10.1147/rd.82.0087.
- Blaauw, Gerrit A., and Frederick P. Brooks Jr. "The structure of SYSTEM/360: Part I—Outline of the logical structure." IBM Systems Journal 3.2 (1964): 119-135.
Patents
- Amdahl, Gene M., et al. "Data processing system." U.S. Patent No. 3,400,371. 3 Sep. 1968.
See also
In Spanish: Gerrit Blaauw para niños
