Former IBM mainframe pioneer, Gene Amdahl, passed away at age 92 last week
Former IBM mainframe pioneer, Gene Amdahl, passed away at age 92 last week
Mr. Gene Amdahl, who was credited for his pioneering efforts in building up IBM mainframe offerings, has passed away at age 92 last week. He was born in the United States in 1922, and it was his doctorate thesis in 1948 that lead him to a job at IBM. It was here where he became one of the key designers of the IBM 704 scientific mainframe computer. He left IBM soon after, only to return in 1960 to work on IBM’s groundbreaking 360 server series. According to Bloomberg Business, the company spent US$5 billion over four years, twice its annual revenue of US$2.5 billion, on the 360 series. Gene Amdahl was in charge of the architecture of the 360 server, and it became IBM’s most profitable server series then.
However, due to personal differences with the corporate direction of IBM, he left the company, to start his own firm, Amdahl Corporation. His company managed to garner financial support from Fujitsu Ltd. The company also got a fillip from an antitrust agreement between IBM and the US government, which required Gene Amdahl’s former employee to “license some of its mainframe technology.” As a result, Amdahl Corporation was able to produce cheaper mainframes that ran IBM’s solutions. Fujitsu Ltd. eventually bought over Gene Amdahl’s majority stake, in his own company, for around US$850 million.
Last week, Gene Amdahl succumbed to pneumonia on November 10 at age 92. According to his wife, Marian Amdahl, he also battled Alzheimer’s disease for the past five year. He is survived by his son Carlton, and two grandchildren. Like the late Dennis Ritchie, Gene Amdahl is among those unsung pioneers, whose contributions to computer science and modern computing remain relatively unknown.
(Source: Bloomberg Business, IBM, Computer History Museum)