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John L. Hennessy

 

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John L. Hennessy



 
 
For other people named John Hennessy, see John Hennessy.


John LeRoy Hennessy is an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 computer scientist and academic. Hennessy is the founder of MIPS Computer Systems Inc. and is the 10th President of Stanford University
Stanford University

Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private university research university located in Stanford, California, California, United States....
.

arned his Bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree

A bachelor's degree is usually an undergraduate academic degree awarded for a course or major that generally lasts for three, four, or in some cases and countries, five or six years....
 in electrical engineering
Electrical engineering

Electrical engineering, sometimes referred to as electrical and electronic engineering, is a field of engineering that deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism....
 from Villanova University
Villanova University

Villanova University is a private university located in Radnor Township, Pennsylvania, a suburb northwest of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States....
, and his Master's degree
Master's degree

A master's degree provides a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of profession. Within the area studied, graduates possess advanced knowledge of a specialized body of theory and applied topics; high order skills in analysis, Critical thinking and/or professional application; and the ability to problem solving a...
 and Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated Ph.D. or PhD for the Latin , meaning "teacher of philosophy", is an postgraduate academic degree awarded by University....
 in computer science
Computer science

Computer science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation, and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems....
 from the State University of New York at Stony Brook
State University of New York at Stony Brook

State University of New York at Stony Brook, commonly known as Stony Brook University, is a public research university located in Stony Brook, New York, New York, United States ....
.

Hennessy became a Stanford faculty member in 1977.






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Encyclopedia


For other people named John Hennessy, see John Hennessy.


John LeRoy Hennessy is an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 computer scientist and academic. Hennessy is the founder of MIPS Computer Systems Inc. and is the 10th President of Stanford University
Stanford University

Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private university research university located in Stanford, California, California, United States....
.

Background

He earned his Bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree

A bachelor's degree is usually an undergraduate academic degree awarded for a course or major that generally lasts for three, four, or in some cases and countries, five or six years....
 in electrical engineering
Electrical engineering

Electrical engineering, sometimes referred to as electrical and electronic engineering, is a field of engineering that deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism....
 from Villanova University
Villanova University

Villanova University is a private university located in Radnor Township, Pennsylvania, a suburb northwest of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States....
, and his Master's degree
Master's degree

A master's degree provides a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of profession. Within the area studied, graduates possess advanced knowledge of a specialized body of theory and applied topics; high order skills in analysis, Critical thinking and/or professional application; and the ability to problem solving a...
 and Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated Ph.D. or PhD for the Latin , meaning "teacher of philosophy", is an postgraduate academic degree awarded by University....
 in computer science
Computer science

Computer science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation, and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems....
 from the State University of New York at Stony Brook
State University of New York at Stony Brook

State University of New York at Stony Brook, commonly known as Stony Brook University, is a public research university located in Stony Brook, New York, New York, United States ....
.

Hennessy became a Stanford faculty member in 1977. In 1984, he used his sabbatical year to found MIPS Computer Systems Inc. to commercialize his research in RISC processor
Central processing unit

A central processing unit is an electronic circuit that can execute computer programs. This broad definition can easily be applied to many early computers that existed long before the term "CPU" ever came into widespread usage....
s. In 1987, he became the Willard and Inez Kerr Bell Endowed Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Hennessy served as director of Stanford's Computer System Laboratory (1989-1993), a research center run by Stanford's Electrical Engineering and Computer Science departments. He was chair of the Department of Computer Science (1994-1996) and Dean of the School of Engineering (1996-1999).

In 1999, Stanford President Gerhard Casper
Gerhard Casper

Gerhard Casper was the 9th president of Stanford University from 1992-2000. He is currently the Peter and Helen Bing Professor in Undergraduate Education at Stanford....
 appointed Hennessy to succeed Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice

Condoleezza Rice was the 66th United States Secretary of State, and the second in the administration of President of the United States George W....
 as Provost
Provost (education)

Provost is the title of a senior academic administrator at many institutions of higher education in the United States and Canada. It is the equivalent of Deputy Vice Chancellor or Pro-Vice-Chancellor at certain institutions in United Kingdom and Ireland such as Trinity College Dublin, and the head of certain ancient colleges ....
 of Stanford University. When Casper stepped down to focus on teaching in 2000, the Stanford Board of Trustees named Hennessy to succeed Casper as president. As Stanford's president, Hennessy earns an annual salary of $566,581.

In 1997, he was inducted as a Fellow
Fellow

A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. Historically, the term fellow was also used to describe a man, particularly by those in the upper social classes....
 of the Association for Computing Machinery
Association for Computing Machinery

The Association for Computing Machinery, or ACM, was founded in 1947 as the world's first scientific and educational computing society. Its membership was approximately 83,000 as of 2007....
, ACM.

Hennessy is a member of the executive committee of the Council on Competitiveness
Council on Competitiveness

The Council on Competitiveness is an United States non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C.. The Council?s goal is to increase the United States' economic competitiveness in the global market....
.

Hennessy joined the board of Google
Google

Google Inc. is an United States public company, earning revenue from AdWords related to its Google search, Gmail, Google Maps, Google Apps, Orkut, and YouTube services as well as selling advertising-free versions of the Google Search Appliance....
, in exchange for 65,000 shares of the company; at the time of Google's IPO, his shares were worth over $22 million. He is also a board member of Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems, Inc. is a multinational corporation with more than 66,000 employees and annual revenue of United States dollar39 billion as of 2008....
, Inc., Atheros Communications, and the Daniel Pearl Foundation
Daniel Pearl

Daniel Pearl was an American journalist who was kidnapped and murdered in Karachi, Pakistan. At the time of his kidnapping, Pearl served as the South Asia Bureau Chief of the The Wall Street Journal, and was based in Mumbai....
.

Research

Hennessy has a history of strong interest and involvement in college-level computer education. He co-authored, with David A. Patterson, two well-known books on computer architecture
Computer architecture

Computer architecture in computer engineering is the conceptual design and fundamental operational structure of a computer system. It is a blueprint and functional description of requirements and design implementations for the various parts of a computer, focusing largely on the way by which the central processing unit performs internally an...
, Computer Organization and Design: the Hardware/Software Interface and Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach, which introduced the DLX
DLX

The DLX is a Reduced instruction set computer Central processing unit Computer architecture design by John L. Hennessy and David A. Patterson , the principal designers of the MIPS architecture and the Berkeley RISC designs , the two benchmark examples of RISC design....
 RISC architecture. They have been widely used as textbook
Textbook

A textbook is a manual of instruction or a standard book in any branch of study. They are produced according to the demand of educational institutions....
s for graduate and undergraduate courses since 1990.

Hennessy also contributed to updating Donald Knuth
Donald Knuth

Donald Ervin Knuth is a renowned computer science and Emeritus of the Art of Computer Programming at Stanford University.Author of the seminal multi-volume work The Art of Computer Programming , Knuth has been called the "father" of the run-time analysis, contributing to the development of, and systematizing formal mathematical techn...
's MIX
MIX

MIX is a hypothetical computer used in Donald Knuth’s monograph, The Art of Computer Programming . MIX’s model number is 1009, which was derived by combining the model numbers and names of several contemporaneous, commercial machines deemed significant by the author....
 processor to the MMIX
MMIX

MMIX is a 64-bit Reduced instruction set computer instruction set Computer architecture designed by Donald Knuth, with significant contributions by John L....
. Both are model computers used in Knuth's classic series, The Art of Computer Programming
The Art of Computer Programming

The Art of Computer Programming is a comprehensive monograph written by Donald Knuth that covers many kinds of programming algorithms and their analysis....
. MMIX is Knuth's DLX equivalent.

Noted publications


External links

  • , John Hennessy speaks at Stanford