Kunle Olukotun
Encyclopedia
Oyekunle Ayinde Olukotun is a pioneer of multi-core processors, a professor of electrical engineering
and computer science
at Stanford University
and director of the Pervasive Parallelism Laboratory at Stanford.
Olukotun did his undergraduate studies at Calvin College
, and his doctoral studies in computer engineering
at the University of Michigan
, under the supervision of Trevor N. Mudge.
In the mid-1990s, Olukotun and his co-authors argued that multi-core computer processors were likely to make better use of hardware than existing superscalar
designs.
In 2000, while a professor at Stanford, Olukotun founded Afara Websystems
, a company that designed and manufactured multi-core SPARC
-based computer processors for data center
s. Afara was purchased by Sun Microsystems
in 2002; at Sun, Olukotun was one of the architects of the 2005 UltraSPARC T1
processor.
In 2008, Olukotun returned to Stanford, and founded the Pervasive Parallelism Laboratory at Stanford after gathering US$6M in funding from several computer-industry corporations. His recent work focuses on domain-specific programming languages that can allow algorithms to be easily adapted to multiple different types of parallel hardware including multi-core systems, graphics processing unit
s, and field-programmable gate array
s.
Olukotun is also a member of the board of advisors of UDC, a Nigeria
n venture capital firm. He was elected as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery
in 2006 for his "contributions to multiprocessors on a chip and multi threaded processor design". He became a Fellow of the IEEE in 2008.
Olukotun has used several words from his African heritage in his research. Afara, the name of the company he founded, means "bridge" in the Yoruba language
, and he has named his server at Stanford Ogun
after the Yoruba god of iron and steel, a play on words since large computers are frequently called big iron.
Electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...
and computer science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
and director of the Pervasive Parallelism Laboratory at Stanford.
Olukotun did his undergraduate studies at Calvin College
Calvin College
Calvin College is a comprehensive liberal arts college located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Founded in 1876, Calvin College is an educational institution of the Christian Reformed Church and stands in the Reformed tradition of Protestantism...
, and his doctoral studies in computer engineering
Computer engineering
Computer engineering, also called computer systems engineering, is a discipline that integrates several fields of electrical engineering and computer science required to develop computer systems. Computer engineers usually have training in electronic engineering, software design, and...
at the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
, under the supervision of Trevor N. Mudge.
In the mid-1990s, Olukotun and his co-authors argued that multi-core computer processors were likely to make better use of hardware than existing superscalar
Superscalar
A superscalar CPU architecture implements a form of parallelism called instruction level parallelism within a single processor. It therefore allows faster CPU throughput than would otherwise be possible at a given clock rate...
designs.
In 2000, while a professor at Stanford, Olukotun founded Afara Websystems
Afara Websystems
Afara Websystems Inc. was a Sunnyvale, California, USA server company whose goal was to build servers surrounding a custom high-throughput CPU architecture, "developing IP traffic management systems that will bring quality-of-service to the next generation of IP access infrastructure." The word...
, a company that designed and manufactured multi-core SPARC
SPARC
SPARC is a RISC instruction set architecture developed by Sun Microsystems and introduced in mid-1987....
-based computer processors for data center
Data center
A data center is a facility used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems...
s. Afara was purchased by Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
in 2002; at Sun, Olukotun was one of the architects of the 2005 UltraSPARC T1
UltraSPARC T1
|right|262px|UltraSPARC T1 processorSun Microsystems' UltraSPARC T1 microprocessor, known until its 14 November 2005 announcement by its development codename "Niagara", is a multithreading, multicore CPU...
processor.
In 2008, Olukotun returned to Stanford, and founded the Pervasive Parallelism Laboratory at Stanford after gathering US$6M in funding from several computer-industry corporations. His recent work focuses on domain-specific programming languages that can allow algorithms to be easily adapted to multiple different types of parallel hardware including multi-core systems, graphics processing unit
Graphics processing unit
A graphics processing unit or GPU is a specialized circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory in such a way so as to accelerate the building of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display...
s, and field-programmable gate array
Field-programmable gate array
A field-programmable gate array is an integrated circuit designed to be configured by the customer or designer after manufacturing—hence "field-programmable"...
s.
Olukotun is also a member of the board of advisors of UDC, a Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
n venture capital firm. He was elected as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery
Association for Computing Machinery
The Association for Computing Machinery is a learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 as the world's first scientific and educational computing society. Its membership is more than 92,000 as of 2009...
in 2006 for his "contributions to multiprocessors on a chip and multi threaded processor design". He became a Fellow of the IEEE in 2008.
Olukotun has used several words from his African heritage in his research. Afara, the name of the company he founded, means "bridge" in the Yoruba language
Yoruba language
Yorùbá is a Niger–Congo language spoken in West Africa by approximately 20 million speakers. The native tongue of the Yoruba people, it is spoken, among other languages, in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo and in communities in other parts of Africa, Europe and the Americas...
, and he has named his server at Stanford Ogun
Ogoun
In the Yoruba and Haitian traditional belief system, Ogun is a orisha and loa who presides over iron, hunting, politics and war. He is the patron of smiths, and is usually displayed with a number of attributes: a machete or sabre, rum and tobacco...
after the Yoruba god of iron and steel, a play on words since large computers are frequently called big iron.
External links
- Home page at Stanford
- Kunle Olukotun's publications on DBLPDBLPDBLP is a computer science bibliography website hosted at Universität Trier, in Germany. It was originally a database and logic programming bibliography site, and has existed at least since the 1980s. DBLP listed more than 1.3 million articles on computer science in January 2010...