Interesting obit

[hodad]

Lynn Conway, co-author of Introduction to VLSI Systems.
https://wapo.st/3VH18eT

 

[sahib]

Annoyingly it is requiring registering or subscribing to read the article.

 

[hodad]

Annoyingly it is requiring registering or subscribing to read the article.

Weird. It's supposed to be a free link. Let's try the NY Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/15/...e_code=1.z00.1kCA.P-4eayVu8J_L&smid=url-share

 

[AnalogPackrat]

Bummer. She was one of those rare, clear-thinking, KISS types in technology. She and Carver Mead really helped advance VLSI in the early days with a clearly conceived framework (layout description, design rules, and all the rest). RIP.

One of my summer internships in 1986 started with a project in C (learning it on the job) to read a CIF file (actually a badly conceived extension of CIF*) and create an HPGL output for plotting. I later bought a copy of the classic Conway/Mead book and still have it.

After reading more and seeing pics...I may have met her at PARC in the 90s when I was working at a spinout division (Xerox trying, again, to make something that didn't just consume paper and toner). We were in an adjacent building between PARC and Foothill Xpwy. We ate lunch up there frequently and regularly interacted with researchers who were doing work relevant to our various products. Several people in my group (including my boss) had been at PARC before, so we got introduced to a bunch of sharp folks. Coincidentally, one of my coworkers there was also trans.

*Plain CIF lexer and parser were a page or two of lex and yacc code which generated a modest sized C output. The poorly conceived extensions, "designed" by Ricoh engineers, required weird special case parsing and messy yacc and generated 150 pages of C code. Derp.

 

[sahib]

Weird. It's supposed to be a free link. Let's try the NY Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/15/...e_code=1.z00.1kCA.P-4eayVu8J_L&smid=url-share

Thank you hodad. Got it now. I had a couple of VLSI books but I did not know her. My ignorance.

 

[AnalogPackrat]

More background for those interested in the history of tech.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mead–Conway_VLSI_chip_design_revolution

https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/how-a-small-class-at-caltech-helped-launch-a-computer-revolution

 

[living sounds]

RIP.

Always good to learn about the amazing people who really made a difference but are pretty much unknown to the general public.