Stephen P. Morse

Stephen Paul Morse (born 1940 in Brooklyn, NY) is the architect of the Intel 8086 chip.

He has degrees in Electrical Engineering from CCNY, the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn and New York University. He has worked for Bell Laboratories, IBM's Watson Research Center and GE Corporate Research and Development.

In recent years, he has applied his technology expertise to Web-based Genealogy Search Tools. His "One Step" Search Pages are widely used by genealogists all over the world. He is also the co-author with linguist Alexander Beider of the Beider–Morse Phonetic Name Matching Algorithm.[1][2]

He is quoted as saying that

"While I'd like to think that the PC wouldn't exist today if I hadn't designed the 8086, the reality is that it would be based on some other processor family. The instruction set would be radically different, but there would still be a PC. I was just fortunate enough to be at the right place at the right time."[3]

In opening remarks Steve Morse delivered at Techniche 2011 to students of the Indian Institute of Technology at Guwahati, India, IIT Guwahati August 31, 2011, he said,

"When I obtained my engineering degree 50 years ago: Computers were the size of a room. Only designated people had access to them. Then minicomputers came along and individuals were able to access them. Then microcomputers and we could build our own computers. Then personal computers and anybody (non engineers) could own one. Then laptops and we could take our computer with us. Then iphones and ipads, and we could put our computer in our pockets. I never could have imagined a computer in my pocket that was more powerful than the computers we had when I started.
Your future will be the same: The technology of 50 years from now is unimaginable today. And you will be part of it.
Your career will take many unexpected but good turns: I started as an electrical engineer by training. My doctoral thesis was in computer graphic analysis. My first job after that was in interactive computer graphics. I went to France and worked in computer languages because that is what they needed. After that computers were getting smaller and I started doing pioneering work on micro computers. Next the language Ada came along and I merged the two; I did development work on an Ada compiler for a microprocessor-embedded system. Next the Internet came along and I got involved with browser development. Most recently I developed a personal interest in genealogy and applied computer applications to it. None of this could I have imagined when I decided to be an electrical engineer.
Follow your passion: I chose engineering because technology (specifically electricity) was my hobby. In engineering school I made the discovery that people were going to pay me to do my hobby. So I've been playing with my hobby my whole career and never "worked" a day in my life. If you can say the same 50 years from now, you will have had a successful career. And you can. . . ."

Recently Steve Morse has added to his site http://stevemorse.org/obamacare/obamacare.html which is the most comprehensive consumer shopping site for those consumers seeking to enroll in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans. The site provides info in each state as to premiums, subsidies, quality rankings and doctors with all plans compared in one table.

Notes

  1. ↑ "Beider–Morse Phonetic Name Matching". SteveMorse.org. Retrieved 2009-06-04.
  2. ↑ Gary Mokotoff (September 28, 2008). "Morse Implements Phonetic Algorithm for Ellis Island Database". Nu? What's New? - The E-zine of Jewish Genealogy - Volume 9, Number 22. Avotaynu. Retrieved 2009-06-04.
  3. ↑ Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak (2004). "Genealogical Computing - Steve Morse: A Genealogical Mensch". Ancestry.com. Retrieved 2009-06-04.

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