Steve Furber

Stephen Byram Furber (born 21 March 1953)<ref name=whoswho/> is an English computer scientist, mathematician and hardware engineer, and Emeritus ICL Professor of Computer Engineering in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Manchester, UK.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> After completing his education at the University of Cambridge (BA, MMath, PhD), he spent the 1980s at Acorn Computers, where he was a principal designer of the BBC Micro and the ARM 32-bit RISC microprocessor.<ref name="web">Template:Cite web</ref> Template:As of, over 250 billion ARM chips have been manufactured, powering much of the world's mobile computing and embedded systems, everything from sensors to smartphones to servers.<ref name=250billion>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=billion>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=segarsb>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=orcid>Steve Furber's Template:ORCID</ref>

In 1990, he moved to Manchester to lead research into asynchronous circuits, low-power electronics<ref name="vlsi">Template:Cite book</ref> and neural engineering, where the Spiking Neural Network Architecture (SpiNNaker) project is delivering a computer incorporating a million ARM processors optimised for computational neuroscience.<ref name="googlescholar">Template:Google scholar id</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="fiftybillion">Template:YouTube</ref><ref name="scopus">Template:Scopus id</ref><ref name="blib">National Life Stories, Professor Steve Furber Interviewed by Thomas Lean, British Library</ref>

Education

Furber was educated at Manchester Grammar School<ref name=whoswho/><ref name=cdyf>Template:Cite web</ref> and represented the UK in the International Mathematical Olympiad in Hungary in 1970 winning a bronze medal.<ref>Template:IMO results</ref> He went on to study the Mathematical Tripos as an undergraduate student of St John's College, Cambridge, receiving a Bachelor of Arts (BA) and Master of Mathematics (MMath – Part III of the Mathematical Tripos) degrees.<ref name=orcid/> In 1978, he was appointed a Rolls-Royce research fellow in aerodynamics at Emmanuel College, Cambridge and was awarded a PhD in 1980 for research on the fluid dynamics of the Weis-Fogh mechanism<ref name=furberphd>Template:Cite thesis</ref> supervised by John Ffowcs Williams.<ref name="mathgene" /><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> During his PhD in the late 1970s, Furber worked on a voluntary basis for Hermann Hauser and Chris Curry within the fledging Acorn Computers (originally the Cambridge Processor Unit), on a number of projects; notably a microprocessor based fruit machine controller, and the Proton – the initial prototype version of what was to become the BBC Micro, in support of Acorn's tender for the BBC Computer Literacy Project.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Lecture by Furber on the Future of Computer Technology</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=acronworld>Template:Cite web</ref>

Career and research

In 1981, following the completion of his PhD and the award of the BBC contract to Acorn computers, Furber joined Acorn where he was a Hardware Designer and then Design Manager. He was involved in the final design and production of the BBC Micro and later, the Acorn Electron, and the ARM microprocessor. In August 1990 he moved to the University of Manchester to become the International Computers Limited (ICL) Professor of Computer Engineering and established the AMULET microprocessor research group.

Furber's main research interests are in neural networks, networks on chip and microprocessors.<ref name="googlescholar"/> In 2003, Furber was a member of the EPSRC research cluster in biologically inspired<ref>Template:Cite conference</ref> novel computation. On 16 September 2004, he gave a speech on Hardware Implementations of Large-scale Neural Networks as part of the initiation activities of the Alan Turing InstituteTemplate:Citation needed.

Furber's most recent project SpiNNaker,<ref name="spin" /><ref>BBC News – Scientists to build 'brain box' 17 July 2006</ref><ref name="buildingbrains">Template:YouTube</ref><ref name="spinvid">Template:YouTube</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="theiet 18-core">Template:Cite news</ref> is an attempt to build a new kind of computer that directly mimics the workings of the human brain. Spinnaker is an artificial neural network realised in hardware, a massively parallel processing system eventually designed to incorporate a million ARM processors.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="techgineering million">Template:Cite web</ref> The finished Spinnaker will model 1 per cent of the human brain's capability, or around 1 billion neurons. The Spinnaker project<ref name="spinnaker"/> aims amongst other things to investigate:

• How can massively parallel computing resources accelerate our understanding of brain function?
• How can our growing understanding of brain function point the way to more efficient parallel, fault-tolerant computation?

Furber believes that "significant progress in either direction will represent a major scientific breakthrough".<ref name="spinnaker">Template:Cite book</ref> Furber's research interests include asynchronous systems, ultra-low-power processors for sensor networks, on-chip interconnect and globally asynchronous locally synchronous (GALS),<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and neural systems engineering.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

His research has been funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC),<ref name="epsrc">http://gow.epsrc.ac.uk/NGBOViewPerson.aspx?PersonId=5628 Grants awarded to Steve Furber by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council</ref> Royal Society<ref name=frs/> and the European Research Council (ERC).<ref name=orcid/>

Awards and honours

In February 1997, Furber was elected a Fellow of the British Computer Society. In 1998, he became a member of the European Working Group on Asynchronous Circuit Design (ACiD-WG). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2002<ref name=frs>Template:Cite web One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: Template:Blockquote</ref> and was Specialist Adviser to the House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee inquiry into microprocessor technology.Template:Citation needed

Furber was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng),<ref name="whoswho"/> the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2005Template:Citation needed and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (FIET).Template:When He is a Chartered Engineer (CEng).Template:When In September 2007 he was awarded the Faraday Medal<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and in 2010 he gave the Pinkerton Lecture.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Furber was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2008 New Year Honours<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>BBC Micro designer gets New Year's Honour ZDNet 2 January 2008</ref> and was elected as one of the three laureates of Millennium Technology Prize in 2010 (with Richard Friend and Michael Grätzel), for development of ARM processor.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2012, Furber was made a Fellow of the Computer History Museum "for his work, with Sophie Wilson, on the BBC Micro computer and the ARM processor architecture."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="electronicsweekly honoured">Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2004 he was awarded a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award.<ref name=frs/> In 2014, he was made a Distinguished Fellow at the British Computer Society (DFBCS) recognising his contribution to the IT profession and industry.<ref name="DFBCS">Template:Cite web</ref> Furber's nomination for the Royal Society reads: Template:Centred pull quote

In 2009, Unsworth Academy (formerly called Castlebrook High School) in Manchester introduced a house system, with Furber being one of the four houses.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On 15 October 2010, Furber officially opened the Independent Learning Zone in Unsworth Academy.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2012, a building at Radbroke Hall was named in his honour by Barclays Bank.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2022, he was awarded the Charles Stark Draper Prize by the National Academy of Engineering of the United States of America alongside John L. Hennessy, David A. Patterson and Sophie M. Wilson for contributions to the invention, development, and implementation of reduced instruction set computer (RISC) chips.<ref name=risc>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=draper>Template:Cite web</ref> Furber was played by actor Sam Philips in the BBC Four documentary drama Micro Men,<ref>Template:IMDb title</ref> first aired on 8 October 2009.

The Furber Chair in Computer Systems Engineering at the University of Manchester is named in his honour. Template:As of this is held by André van Schaik.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

File:Steve Furber playing electric bass guitar 2012.jpg

Furber playing bass guitar

Furber is married to Valerie Elliot with two daughters, 3 grandchildren<ref name="whoswho"/> and plays bass guitar.<ref name=cdyf/>