, the world's first Turing Award female winner, and the first IBM academician Frances Allen (Frances Allen), died of complications from Alzheimer's disease. The day of death was August 4, which coincided with her 88th birthday.
Figure | Frances Allen (Frances Allen)
Allen's main research direction is compiler optimization, a compiler is a kind of program that can convert instructions written in a computer language into a program executed by a machine.
personally met Allen’s Assistant Professor of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and MIT Technology Review’s 2020 global “35 technological innovations under 35”, Li Bo, recalled: “During my Ph. Fortunately, I went to IBM and told her old man about my research topic. She was very nice and patient."
Regarding Allen's departure, Li Bo also regretted: "Francis Allen is the originator of the compilation principle. Her departure is a loss to the computer and even the entire scientific field. Allen's pioneering research in compiling system architecture and optimizing parallelism has a profound impact on the development of our current computer. She has devoted her life to research and has brought many younger generations. The "dual" role model of academic research and education, whose academic achievements and scientific spirit will continue to influence more descendants."
Regarding her unfortunate death, Feng Xiaobing, a researcher at the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a domestic compiler expert, told DeepTech: ·Allen's death is very regrettable. There are very few industry giants like her. Allen herself is also one of the pioneers of computer science, and her pioneering and foundation in compiling system architecture, program analysis, optimization technology, etc. Sex work has far-reaching impact. She won the Turing Award in 2007. In addition, Allen has long been committed to encouraging women, especially young women, to devote themselves to science (including computer science) careers, which is also her heart Another reason for admiration."
When Allen initially devoted himself to the field of computer science, it originated from an "accident".
"Mistakenly hitting" into IBM
In 1954, Allen came to a local middle school to teach after obtaining a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the State University of New York at Albany. In order to obtain the certification required for the job, after working in high school for two years, she entered the University of Michigan to study mathematics and obtained a master's degree in mathematics in 1957.
At that time, IBM happened to come to the University of Michigan to do campus recruitment. Allen, who was born in an ordinary family, decided to join the company as a programmer in order to repay the debts owed by graduate school. But she originally regarded IBM's offer as a "one-time job" and planned to leave IBM after paying off the debt. As a result, she stayed for half a lifetime.
's first job at IBM was to teach new employees the basics of the FORTRAN language (FORTRAN is the abbreviation of Formula Translation, meaning "formula translation"). Today, FORTRAN is already one of the oldest computer languages, but at the time it was a new high-level programming language introduced by IBM. Contact with FORTRAN was also the beginning of Allen's work in high-performance computing compilers. Following this project, another representative project of
is the Stretch-Harvest computer project in the early 1960s, which was designed to deal with the confidential password cracking and intelligence gathering of the National Security Agency (NSA). Later, the project served the NSA for 14 years. After
finished the NSA project, she participated in IBM's advanced computing system project, during which she designed and built a set of compiler optimization components. Based on this work, Allen published a groundbreaking paper on "program optimization" in 1966, which described a new framework that can be used for program evaluation and program optimization.
In 1970, Allen published a paper on "Control Flow Analysis" and proposed the concepts of "intervals" and "node dominance relations". This made a contribution to previous research in this field. HeavyTo improve.
Two years later, in another paper "A Catalog of Optimizing Transformations", she first mentioned the optimization conversion of a systematic compiler. The partner of the paper is her IBM colleague John Cocke (John Cocke), who was once known as the "father of RISC architecture."
From 1980 to 1995, Allen led a team that studied parallel computing science. The team had put forward an original idea-using low-cost, high-performance microprocessors for parallel processing (Parallel Processing).
In addition to her job, Allen is also an enthusiastic mentor for IBM. During her tenure, she has been working hard to cultivate women's interest in computer science. In 1989, she became the first female IBM Fellow Emerita (IBM Fellow Emerita). The IBM Fellow is also the highest honor for the company's technical staff, and she is also the chairman of the IBM Institute of Technology.
For many years thereafter, she continued to deliver speeches all over the world to urge women to engage in scientific and technological work. In 2000, in recognition of her efforts, IBM established the Frances E. Allen Mentor Award for Women in Science and Technology in her name.
In 2002, after 45 years at IBM, Allen retired, but she is still an honorary employee of the company.
picture | Francis Allen's elderly photo
The second day after the death of the world's first female Turing Award winner
Allen, IBM Research Institute wrote an article to miss.
IBM Research Institute Dean Dario Gil (Dario Gil) also paid tribute to him in the email. He said that Allen will be remembered as a pioneer in the field of computing, and she has made pioneering contributions in the field of optimizing compilers. Dario Gil also said that she also left an immortal mark on IBM, not only based on her technological vision and technological heritage, but also because she has brought inspiration and help to others, especially in inspiring women to engage in science. Enthusiasm.
Figure | IBM remembers Allen's article
In 2006, Allen became Turing because of "making pioneering contributions in the theoretical and practical fields of optimizing compiler technology, and laying the foundation for modern optimizing compilers and automatic parallel execution technology" Awarded the first female winner since its establishment in 1966. Since then, only two other women have won the award: Barbara Liskov (Barbara Liskov) in 2008 and Shafi Goldwasser (Shafi Goldwasser) in 2012. In addition, she won the Augusta Ada Lovelace Award from the Women in Computer Association. In addition to the Turing Award, Allen has won many other honors.
At the beginning of 2020, IBM and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) have cooperated to establish the IEEE Frances E. Allen Medal. Allen and dozens of other scientific celebrities have already received the medal. The medal will be awarded for the first time at the IEEE Honor Ceremony in 2022 It is reported that this will also be the highest award of IEEE, and her reason for winning the award is that she has dedicated her life to developing computing fields and pioneering new breakthroughs, as well as focusing on inspiring young people, especially women, to do the same work as her. In addition to working at IBM, Allen is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also a member of the Association for Computer Science (ACM), IEEE, and the Computer History Museum. With her outstanding contributions in the field of computing, she has been awarded two honorary doctorates and was selected into the International Women in Technology Hall of Fame (WITI, Women in Technology International).
Specifically, the significance of Allen’s results is that since the late 1950s, programmers working on mainframes have to manually write programs line by line and spend time adjusting slow software. Will cause software errors. The emergence of software compilers allows programmers to automatically optimize software, thereby saving valuable time.
As a pioneer of compiler organization and optimization algorithms, Allen's work in parallel computing is still at the forefront of compiler research. She moved parallel computing to STRETCH HARVEST compiler, COBOL compiler and other products to simplify parallel computing. At the same time, Allen, as a pioneer in compiler organization and optimization algorithms, laid the foundation for compiler optimization technology and made pioneering contributions in the computer field.
Ricana Bajcsy, professor emeritus of electronic engineering and computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, told the media that Allen’s work has brought significant advancements in compiler design and machine architecture, and these advancements are the foundation of modern high-performance computing. . Ricana believes that her contribution covers most of the history of computer science. She used her own power to influence the entire computer development process.
And Allen's life is also quite inspirational.
was born in a farm family and was inspired by the enlightenment teacher to stimulate interest in mathematics.
On August 4, 1932, during the Great Depression in the United States, Allen was born in a farm family in Peru, New York, United States. His father was a farmer and his mother was an elementary school teacher. , With 6 children in the family, she is the eldest.
Her childhood life was very poor. She lived with her family in a farmhouse without electricity and heating since she was a child, but she loves studying very much and spent most of her time studying. In high school, a teacher aroused her interest in mathematics, which also laid the foundation for her subsequent computer research.
Personal life, Allen has worked with computer scientist Jacob Schwartz (Jacob Schwartz). Schwartz came to IBM as a visiting scholar and worked with Allen and John Kirk. The three of them did a lot of pioneering work in compiler optimization and software tools.
Allen later became Schwartz's second wife. The two married in 1972, and the marriage ended in Lao Yanfei. Schwartz also died of liver cancer in 2009. Alan, who is not a scientist, is also an explorer. She is a member of the American Alpine Club and the Canadian Alpine Club. As a member of the Sino-US Joint Western Mountaineering Expedition, she visited China three times.
She has also explored Baffin Island, the largest island in Canada and the fifth largest island in the world. In 2008, she told the US National News Agency: “During the exploration trip of Baffin Island, our team made six summits for the first time and mapped the unknown mountains. In the Canadian Arctic Archipelago (Arctic Archipelago) During the trip, we established a new route across the island."
However, exploration is only Alan’s amateur interest, and she believes that her half-century of computational research experience is a real trip. The Sri Lankan has gone, may her rest in peace.
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