Arnold Allen
Encyclopedia
Arnold Oral Allen was an American instructor, public speaker, and writer who worked at IBM
and Hewlett-Packard
, and specialized in the analysis and mathematical modelling of computer performance
.
at UCLA in 1962 under Angus Taylor
with a dissertation entitled Banach and Hilbert Spaces of Analytic Functions, where he later lectured. At IBM, he taught at the Information Systems Management Institute in Los Angeles, California
. Later, at Hewlett-Packard, he was a member of the Performance Technology Center, then a researcher at the Advanced Technology Group in Roseville, California
.
Allen was elected as a director of the Computer Measurement Group
(CMG), and selected to be the keynote speaker at two international conferences. He was an invited speaker at the Sixth International Conference on Modelling Techniques and Tools for Computer Performance Evaluation, held in Edinburgh, Scotland in September 1992.
In 1994, he received the Computer Measurement group's A. A. Michelson award for technical excellence and professional contributions as a teacher and inspirer of others.
, statistics
and queueing theory
techniques to solve problems in other fields, such as operations research
, management science, engineering
, and physics
.
At IBM and Hewlett-Packard, Allen's students were typically systems engineers and project managers, not computer scientists. He encouraged them to improve upon the informal approaches to computer performance analysis that were (and still are) in common use, applying more formal methods
and using mathematical models to predict how the performance of a computer system would behave as workloads increased. He began his 1994 book, Computer Performance Analysis with Mathematica, with this observation:
He concluded the book by quoting George Bernard Shaw
: "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man". Allen commented, "I hope the reader fits Shaw's definition of unreasonable, and wants to change things for the better".
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
and Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
, and specialized in the analysis and mathematical modelling of computer performance
Computer performance
Computer performance is characterized by the amount of useful work accomplished by a computer system compared to the time and resources used.Depending on the context, good computer performance may involve one or more of the following:...
.
Biography
Allen earned a Ph.D in MathematicsMathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
at UCLA in 1962 under Angus Taylor
Angus Ellis Taylor
Angus Ellis Taylor was a mathematician and professor at various universities in the University of California system. He earned his undergraduate degree at Harvard summa cum laude in 1933 and his PhD at Caltech in 1936 under Aristotle Michal with a dissertation on analytic functions...
with a dissertation entitled Banach and Hilbert Spaces of Analytic Functions, where he later lectured. At IBM, he taught at the Information Systems Management Institute in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. Later, at Hewlett-Packard, he was a member of the Performance Technology Center, then a researcher at the Advanced Technology Group in Roseville, California
Roseville, California
-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Roseville had a population of 118,788. The population density was 3,279.4 people per square mile...
.
Allen was elected as a director of the Computer Measurement Group
Computer Measurement Group
The Computer Measurement Group , founded in 1974, is a worldwide non-profit organization of data processing professionals whose work involves measuring and managing the performance of computing systems...
(CMG), and selected to be the keynote speaker at two international conferences. He was an invited speaker at the Sixth International Conference on Modelling Techniques and Tools for Computer Performance Evaluation, held in Edinburgh, Scotland in September 1992.
In 1994, he received the Computer Measurement group's A. A. Michelson award for technical excellence and professional contributions as a teacher and inspirer of others.
Work
Allen is most well known as the author of the book, Probability, Statistics, and Queueing Theory with Computer Science Applications. Originally published in 1978, and still in print in 2007, it is widely used as a university textbook, by practitioners of computer performance analysis, and by those wishing to apply probabilityProbability
Probability is ordinarily used to describe an attitude of mind towards some proposition of whose truth we arenot certain. The proposition of interest is usually of the form "Will a specific event occur?" The attitude of mind is of the form "How certain are we that the event will occur?" The...
, statistics
Statistics
Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....
and queueing theory
Queueing theory
Queueing theory is the mathematical study of waiting lines, or queues. The theory enables mathematical analysis of several related processes, including arriving at the queue, waiting in the queue , and being served at the front of the queue...
techniques to solve problems in other fields, such as operations research
Operations research
Operations research is an interdisciplinary mathematical science that focuses on the effective use of technology by organizations...
, management science, engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
, and physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
.
At IBM and Hewlett-Packard, Allen's students were typically systems engineers and project managers, not computer scientists. He encouraged them to improve upon the informal approaches to computer performance analysis that were (and still are) in common use, applying more formal methods
Formal methods
In computer science and software engineering, formal methods are a particular kind of mathematically-based techniques for the specification, development and verification of software and hardware systems...
and using mathematical models to predict how the performance of a computer system would behave as workloads increased. He began his 1994 book, Computer Performance Analysis with Mathematica, with this observation:
The word performance in computer performance means the same thing that performance means in other contexts, that is, it means "How well is the computer doing the work it is supposed to do?"
He concluded the book by quoting George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
: "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man". Allen commented, "I hope the reader fits Shaw's definition of unreasonable, and wants to change things for the better".
Publications
- 1978. Probability, statistics, and queueing theory : with computer science applications
- 1994. Introduction to computer performance analysis with Mathematica.
- 1996. Mathematica CD-ROM library