3 ms·

Lynn Conway, Dynamic Instruction Scheduling https://web.archive.org/web/20150814232249/https://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/ACS/DIS/DIS.pdf https://web.arch

Lynn Conway, Dynamic Instruction Scheduling https://web.archive.org/web/20150814232249/https://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/ACS/DIS/DIS.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20150814232249/https://ai.eecs.u... This report was issued February 23, 1966 which was close to a year before Tomasulo's An Efficient Algorithm for Exploiting Multiple Arithmetic Units. I'd never heard of this report before today. It isn't taught in Berkeley's CS152/252. It's not mentioned in Hennessy and Patterson's books.

ziyao_w 2y ago
Wow, 4 citations. I feel happy for Lynn that she ended up doing a lot more impressive work, but definitely this should be restored to its proper place in the history of computing. Something doesn't quite compute here though - according to Wikipedia after she announced her intent to transition Lynn was fired in 1968, but this paper was from 1966 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40650635 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40650635 also does not have any information. Maybe at least someone shielded her for some time? Also Francis Allen seems to have worked on the same project at IBM - she mentioned there were works by other women that other people (Turning award winners IIRC) took credit of - could Lynn's work be one of those? Really hope Fran and Lynn would at least knew each other.
- gammarator 2y ago
  This article says that she corrected her name when she posted the scanned paper to her website around 2000. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-nov-19-tm-54188-story.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-nov-19-tm-54188...
  - ziyao_w 2y ago
    lol thanks! Read probably 80% of the article and missed this: "Almost before knowing it, she had decided. Lynn copied the most important papers. After carefully eradicating her old name and inserting the new on every title page[...]"

ziyao_w 2y ago

Wow, 4 citations. I feel happy for Lynn that she ended up doing a lot more impressive work, but definitely this should be restored to its proper place in the history of computing. Something doesn't quite compute here though - according to Wikipedia after she announced her intent to transition Lynn was fired in 1968, but this paper was from 1966 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40650635 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40650635 also does not have any information. Maybe at least someone shielded her for some time? Also Francis Allen seems to have worked on the same project at IBM - she mentioned there were works by other women that other people (Turning award winners IIRC) took credit of - could Lynn's work be one of those? Really hope Fran and Lynn would at least knew each other.

gammarator 2y ago
This article says that she corrected her name when she posted the scanned paper to her website around 2000. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-nov-19-tm-54188-story.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-nov-19-tm-54188...
- ziyao_w 2y ago
  lol thanks! Read probably 80% of the article and missed this: "Almost before knowing it, she had decided. Lynn copied the most important papers. After carefully eradicating her old name and inserting the new on every title page[...]"