American engineer Bob Metcalfe, 76, has just been awarded the 2022 Turing Prize by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for inventing Ethernet, a technology that, half a century after its creation, remains a crucial foundation of the internet.
Engineer Metcalfe graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1969 and earned his Ph.D. in computer science from Harvard University in 1973. According to ACM, in 1973, while working as a computer scientist at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), Metcalfe circulated a now-famous memo describing a “broadcast communications network” to connect some of the first personal computers inside a building. That memo laid the foundation for what is now known as Ethernet.
Metcalfe's Ethernet design combined insights from his experience with ALOHAnet—a pioneering computer networking system developed at the University of Hawaii. After leaving Xerox Palo Alto in 1979, Metcalfe remained a key evangelist for Ethernet and continued to research its development. Metcalfe introduced a superior method for connecting devices in a way that could conveniently scale as the number of computers in the network increased, paving the way for the later internet.
ACM Chairman Yannis Ioannidis said that today, with an estimated 7 billion ports globally, Ethernet is so widespread that ACM takes it for granted.
"Our connected world wouldn't be what it is today without Bob Metcalfe's inventions and his long-term vision that every computer needs to be networked," Yannis emphasized.
The Turing Prize is an annual award given by the ACM to individuals or groups who have made significant contributions and is considered the Nobel Prize for computer science. The award is named after the British scientist Alan Mathison Turing, who is considered the father of computer science theory and artificial intelligence. According to the ACM, Mr. Metcalfe will receive a certificate and a prize of $1 million, with support from Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet.
PHUONG LINH
The future of robotization in the US Air Force
With the development of automation and artificial intelligence (AI), the Pentagon and the US Air Force have envisioned an integrated combat formation combining manned aircraft and robotic drones that could change the face of future battlefields starting in the 2030s.
Comment (0)