Gerrit Blaauw Quotes

12 Sourced Quotes

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.

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

Gerrit Blaauw
A hardware design language should be (i) sufficiently high level, (ii) conversational, (iii) general purpose, and (iv) structured.

Gerrit Blaauw
In this remarkable book on computer design, long-known in the field and widely used in manuscript form, Gerrit A. Blaauw and Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. provide a definitive guide and reference for practicing computer architects and for students. The book complements Brooks' recently updated classic, The Mythical Man-Month, focusing here on the design of "hardware" and there on "software," here on the "content" of computer architecture and there on the "process" of architecture design. The book's focus on "architecture" issues complements Blaauw's early work on "implementation" techniques. Having experienced most of the computer age, the authors draw heavily on their first-hand knowledge, emphasizing timeless insights and observations.

Gerrit Blaauw
The architecture of a system can be defined as the functional appearance of the system to the user.

Gerrit Blaauw
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,

Gerrit Blaauw
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...

Gerrit Blaauw
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.

Gerrit Blaauw
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'.

Gerrit Blaauw
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.

Gerrit Blaauw
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

Gerrit Blaauw
Scientific customers are traditionally less worried about reprogramming efforts than commercial customers, since many jobs are of a research nature and will be done over from time to time anyway. This is obviously true of many small and 'lone shot problems. In practice, however, there are many more machine hours spent on production-type scientific problems than on those of research-type at most scientific computing installations. These production problems can be as rigid and static as any commercial job. The scientists responsible for production work will complain about reprogramming just as violently as an accountant will under the same circumstances.

Gerrit Blaauw