Gerrit Blaauw

“Data processing system programmed by instruction and associated control words including word address modification. United States Patent 3202971”

“Diesrede Blaauw: Beschrijven en begrijpen 26 November 1976 (in Dutch)”

“Gerrit Blaauw, unsung heroes in Dutch computing history.”

“Blaauw... joined the IBM research lab at Poughkeepsie, New York, USA. During this period Blaauw became famous for his methodological manner of building computer machines. He made a difference between architecture, implementation and realization of a machine. After a couple of years working on some different machines, one of the most famous machines built by Frederick Brooks, Gerrit Blaauw and Gene Amdahl was the IBM System/360, which was introduced in 1964. IBM Board Chairman Thomas Watson Jr. called the event the most important product announcement in the company's history.”

“Practical knowledge of modularity has come largely from the computer industry. The term architecture was first used in connection with computers by the designers of the System/360: Gene M. Amdahl, Gerrit A. Blaauw, and Frederick P. Brooks.”

“The term Computer Architecture was first defined in the paper by Amdahl, Blaauw and Brooks of International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation announcing IBM System/360 computer family on April 7, 1964. On that day IBM Corporation introduced, in the words of IBM spokesman, "the most important product announcement that this corporation has made in its history".”

“Blaauw and Brooks first develop a conceptual framework for understanding computer architecture. They then describe not only what present architectural practice is, but how it came to be so. A major theme is the early divergence and the later reconvergence of computer architectures. They examine both innovations that survived and became part of the standard computer, and the many ideas that were explored in real machines but did not survive. In describing the discards, they also address "why" these ideas did not make it”

“A hardware design language should be (i) sufficiently high level, (ii) conversational, (iii) general purpose, and (iv) structured:”

“By architecture I mean 'appearance to the user' - it is the functional specification of the system (its behavioural appearance). By implementation I mean 'internal logical organisation which performs the functions specified by the architecture' and by realisation I mean 'the physical components in which the logical organisation is embodied'.”

“The design of a digital system starts with the specification of the architecture of the system and continues with its implementation and its subsequent realisation... the purpose of architecture is to provide a function. Once that function is established, the purpose of implementation is to give a proper cost-performance and the purpose of realisation is to build and maintain the appropriate logical organisation.”

“There always is an architecture, whether it is defined in advance - as with modern computers - or found out after the fact - as with many older computers. For architecture is determined by behavior, not by words. Therefore, the term architecture, which rightly implies the notion of the arch, or prime structure, should not be understood as the vague overall idea. Rather, the product of the computer architecture, the principle of operations manual, should contain all detail which the user can know, and sooner or later is bound to know.”

“The result of the implementation, the logical design, is traditionally shown as a series of block diagrams. These blocks represent in effect a series of statements, Actually, a direct presentation of these statements is more suitable and, although less familiar, more easily understood. The Harvard Mark IV was to large degree designed and described by such statements, as has been the case with several subsequent developments.”

“In computer design three levels can be distinguished: architecture, implementation and realisation; for the first of them, the following working definition is given: The architecture of a system can be defined as the functional appearance of the system to the user, its phenomenology.”

“The purpose of the Committee was to study and report upon the desirability and characteristics of another computer system based on Stretch technology but having a lower cost and broader market than the 7000 Sigma system. The Committee was instructed to keep an open mind in initially examining various machine possibilities both from the engineering and marketing points of view...”

“The architecture of a system can be defined as the functional appearance of the system to the user.”

“[The architecture specification covers] all functions of the machine that are observable by the program.”

“The term architecture is used here to describe the attributes of a system as seen by the programmer, i.e., the conceptual structure and functional behavior, as distinct from the organization of the data flow and controls, the logical design, and the physical implementation. i. Additional details concerning the architecture,”