A lifetime achievement award was presented to Professor David May FRS FREng at the 2010 Elektra Electronics Industry Awards in London last week.
After his early work in Robotics, this year’s winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award joined UK semiconductor company - Inmos (IN-MOSS) - leading their pioneering work on transputers, the first parallel computing microprocessors.
While there he developed the innovative OCCAM (OC-CAM) programming language, which is still used to teach parallel computing today.
Bristol’s pre-eminent position as a world centre for microprocessor design, stems substantially from his inspirational technical leadership at the company.
Over 200 designers came within his direct influence and many went on to form related microelectronics ventures in the Bristol area.
As Head of Computer Science at Bristol University since 1995, he created a new curriculum with a focus on design, engineering and enterprise. Every year, new companies are formed by graduating students.
In 2005, he founded XMOS (X-MOSS) along with one of his students and he is its Chief Technology Officer. He has taken many of the design principles first formulated earlier in his career, and created a new architecture enabling consumer products to be designed and customised rapidly in software using standard chips.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1991 for his contributions to computer architecture and parallel computing, and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2010.
He is a Director of Bristol Innovations; he advises technology investors and he has been an advisor to many microelectronics start-ups.
His 40 patents, 75 publications and many invited presentations demonstrate an outstanding contribution to microprocessor technology.
Elektra Awards 2010 - the winners parade