[reading]Turing lectures

I probably have spent too much of my life thinking about computers, but I do not regret it a bit. I was fortunate to enter the field of computing in its infancy and participate in its explosive growth. The rapid evolution of the underlying technologies in the past 30 years has not only provided an exciting environment, but has also presented a constant stream of intellectual challenges to those of us trying to harness this power and squeeze it to the last ounce. I hasten to say, especially to the younger members of the audience, there is no end in sight. As a matter of fact, I believe the next thirty years will be even more exciting and rich with challenges.

The three principal contributors to performance in scientific processors are the algorithm, the compiler, and the machine organization. When possible, the simultaneous optimization of these three factors holds the key to the hightest possible performance.

-- John Cocke, 1988,  Search for Performance in Scientific Processors

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