David May (computer scientist)

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(Michael) David May, born February 24th 1951, is a British computer scientist. He is a Professor of Computer Science at Bristol University and founder and CTO of XMOS Semiconductor.

David was lead architect for the Transputer. As of 2007, he holds 34 patents, all in microprocessing and multi-processing.

[edit] Biography

David was born in Holmfirth, Yorkshire, England and attended Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield. From 1969-1972 he was a student at King's College, Cambridge University, initially studying Mathematics and then Computer Science in the Cambridge University Mathematical Laboratory.

He moved to Warwick University and started research in robotics. The challenges of implementing sensing and control systems led him to design and implement an early concurrent programming language, EPL, which ran on a cluster of single-board microcomputers connected by serial communication links. This early work brought him into contact with Tony Hoare and Iann Barron - one of the founders of Inmos.

When Inmos was formed in 1978, David joined to work on microcomputer architecture, becoming lead architect of the transputer and designer of the associated programming language Occam. This extended his earlier work and was also influenced by Tony Hoare who was at the time working on CSP and acting as a consultant to Inmos.

The prototype of the transputer was called the Simple 42 and was completed in 1982. The first production transputers, the T212 and T414 followed in 1985; the T800 floating point transputer in 1987. David initiated the design of the one of the first VLSI packet switches, the C104, together with the communications system of the T9000 transputer.

Working closely with Tony Hoare and the Oxford University Programming Research Group, David introduced formal verification techniques into the design of the T800 floating point unit and the T9000 transputer. These were some of the earliest uses of formal verification in microprocessor design, involving specifications, correctness preserving transformations and model checking, giving rise to the initial version of the FDR checker developed at Oxford.

In 1990, David received an Honorary DSc from Southampton University, followed in 1991 by his election as a Fellow of The Royal Society and the award of the Patterson Medal of the Institute of Physics in 1992.

In 1995, David joined Bristol University as a Professor of Computer Science. He was Head of the Computer Science Department from 1995 to 2006. He continues to be a Professor at Bristol whilst also being the Chief Technology Officer of XMOS, a University spin-out he co-founded in 2005.

David is married with 3 sons and lives in Bristol, United Kingdom.

May's Law: Software efficiency halves every 18 months, compensating Moore's Law.

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