Bill Dally: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|American computer scientist and educator (born 1960)}}

{{BLP sources|date=June 2023}}

| name = Bill Dally

| image = William Dally, PCAST Member (cropped).jpg

| caption = Dally in 2021

| birth_name = William James Dally

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1960|08|17}}

| alma_mater = {{ubl|[[Virginia Tech]]|[[Stanford University]]|[[Caltech]]}}

| doctoral_advisor = [[Charles Seitz]]<ref name =MG/>

| thesis_title = A VLSI Architecture for Concurrent Data Structures

| thesis_url = https://thesis.library.caltech.edu/1122/3/Dally_wj_1986.pdf

| thesis_year = 1986

| doctoral_students = {{ubl|[[Andrew A. Chien]]|[[Stephen W. Keckler]]}}

| workplaces = {{ubl|[[Bell Labs]]|[[Stac Electronics]]|[[Stream Processors, Inc.]]|[[MIT]]|[[Stanford]]|[[Nvidia]]}}

| awards = {{ubl|[[Maurice Wilkes Award]] (2000)|[[ACM Fellow]] (2002)|[[IEEE Fellow]] (2002)|[[Seymour Cray Computer Science and Engineering Award|Seymour Cray Award]] (2004)|[[International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium#IEEE Computer Society Charles Babbage Award|Charles Babbage Award]] (2006)|[[Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences|AAA&S Fellow]] (2007)|[[Eckert–Mauchly Award]] (2010)}}

'''William James Dally''' (born August 17, 1960) is an American computer scientist and educator.<ref name="MG">{{MathGenealogy|id=65985}}</ref><ref>{{Cite linked authority file|id=n86116498}}</ref> He is the chief scientist and senior vice president at [[Nvidia]] and was previously a professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at [[Stanford University]] and [[MIT]]. Since 2021, he has been a member of the [[President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology]] (PCAST).<ref>{{Cite press release |title=President Biden Announces Members of President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology |date=2021-09-22 |publisher=[[The White House]] |location=Washington |url=https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/09/22/president-biden-announces-members-of-presidents-council-of-advisors-on-science-and-technology/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=William Dally, PhD |url=https://www.whitehouse.gov/pcast/members/william-dally/ |access-date=2023-06-11 |website=[[PCAST]] |publisher=The White House |language=en-US}}</ref>

== Microelectronics ==

He developed a number of techniques used in modern interconnection networks including routing-based [[deadlock avoidance]], [[wormhole routing]], link-level retry, [[virtual channel]]s, global adaptive routing, and high-radix routers.{{Technical inline|date=June 2023}} He has developed efficient mechanisms for communication, synchronization, and naming in parallel computers including message-driven computing and fast capability-based addressing. He has developed a number of [[Stream processing|stream processors]] starting in 1995 including Imagine, for graphics, signal, and image processing, and Merrimac, for scientific computing.{{Citation needed|date=December 2021}}

He has published over 200 papers as well as the textbooks ''Digital Systems Engineering'' with [[John Poulton]], and ''Principles and Practices of Interconnection Networks'' with Brian Towles. He was inventor or co-inventor on over 70 granted patents.

An author quoted him saying: "Locality is efficiency, Efficiency is power, Power is performance, Performance is king".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Johnson|first=Matt|title=An Analysis of Linux Scalability to Many Cores|year=2011|pages=4|quote=Locality is efficiency, Efficiency is power, Power is performance, Performance is king}}</ref>

==Career==

=== Bell Labs ===

{{See also|Ma Bell}}

Dally has received a [[bachelor's degree]] in [[electrical engineering]] from [[Virginia Tech]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=William Dally |url=https://research.nvidia.com/person/william-dally |access-date=2023-06-11 |website=Research |publisher=[[Nvidia]] |language=en}}</ref> While working for [[Bell Labs|Bell Telephone Laboratories]] he contributed to the design of the [[Bellmac 32]], an early 32-bit microprocessor,{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}} and earned an [[master's degree]] in electrical engineering from [[Stanford University]] in 1981. He then went to the [[California Institute of Technology]] (Caltech) from 1983 to 1986,<ref name=":0" /> graduating with a [[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D. degree]] in [[computer science]] in 1986. At Caltech he designed the MOSSIM simulation engine and an integrated circuit for routing. While at Caltech, he was part of the founding group of [[Stac Electronics]] in 1983.<ref name="norway">{{cite web |url= http://www.norway.org/PageFiles/451518/William%20Dally.pdf |title=From Science to Technology, From Research to Product |date= November 4, 2011 |author= William Dally |publisher= [[Stanford University School of Engineering|Stanford Engineering]] |work= Slides from Norway Science Week |access-date= March 7, 2017 }}</ref>

=== MIT ===

From 1986 to 1997 he taught at [[MIT]] where he and his group built the [[J–Machine]] and the M–Machine,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://changelog.com/practicalai/15|title=Practical AI #15: Artificial intelligence at NVIDIA with Chief Scientist Bill Dally|website=Changelog|date=8 October 2018 |language=en|access-date=2019-04-25|quote=I was on the faculty at MIT for 11 years, where I built a research group that built a number of pioneering supercomputers,}}</ref> parallel machines emphasizing low overhead synchronization and communication. During his MIT times he claims to have collaborated on developing design of [[Cray T3D]] and [[Cray T3E]] supercomputers. He became the Willard R. and Inez Kerr Bell Professor in the [[Stanford University School of Engineering]] and chairman of the computer science department at Stanford. He served as chairman for twelve years before moving on to Nvidia.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bill Dally |url=https://hai.stanford.edu/people/bill-dally |access-date=2023-06-11 |website=Stanford HAI |language=en}}</ref>

Dally's corporate involvements include various collaborations at [[Cray Research]] since 1989. He did Internet router work at Avici Systems starting in 1997, was chief technical officer at Velio Communications from 1999 until its 2003 acquisition by [[LSI Logic]], founder and chairman of [[Stream Processors, Inc]] until it folded.<ref name="norway" />

=== Nvidia and IEEE fellow ===

Dally was elected a Fellow of the [[Association for Computing Machinery]] in 2002, and a Fellow of the [[IEEE]], also in 2002. In 2003 he became a consultant for NVIDIA for the first time and helped to develop [[GeForce 8800|GeForce 8800 GPUs]] series.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Practical AI #15: Artificial intelligence at NVIDIA with Chief Scientist Bill Dally|url=https://changelog.com/practicalai/15|access-date=2019-04-25|website=Changelog|date=8 October 2018 |language=en}}</ref> He received the ACM/SIGARCH [[Maurice Wilkes Award]] in 2000, the [[Seymour Cray Computer Science and Engineering Award]] in 2004, and the [[International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium#IEEE Computer Society Charles Babbage Award|IEEE Computer Society Charles Babbage Award]] in 2006. In 2007 he was elected to the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]].

In January 2009 he was appointed chief scientist of [[Nvidia]].<ref>{{cite web|date=January 28, 2009|title=Nvidia Names Stanford's Bill Dally Chief Scientist, VP Of Research|url=http://www.nvidia.com/object/io_1233142016114.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090203090059/http://www.nvidia.com/object/io_1233142016114.html|archive-date=February 3, 2009|access-date=March 7, 2017|work=Press release}}</ref> He worked full-time at Nvidia, while supervising about 12 of his graduate students at Stanford.<ref>{{Cite web|author=Ashlee Vance|author-link=Ashlee Vance|date=April 8, 2009|title=Hello, Dally: Nvidia Scientist Breaks Silence, Criticizes Intel|url=https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/hello-dally-nvidia-scientist-breaks-silence-criticizes-intel/|access-date=March 10, 2017|work=The New York Times}}</ref> He is currently chief scientist and [[Senior vice president|SVP]] of Nvidia Research.<ref>{{Cite web |last=MarketScreener |title=William Dally - Biography |url=https://www.marketscreener.com/business-leaders/William-James-Dally-16672/biography/ |access-date=2023-06-11 |website=www.marketscreener.com |language=en}}</ref>

Among many contributions to technology at Nvidia, Dally also kick-started optical interconnects for GPU<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dally |first=Bill |chapter=Hardware for Deep Learning |date=2023-08-27 |title=2023 IEEE Hot Chips 35 Symposium (HCS) |chapter-url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/hcs59251.2023.10254716 |pages=1–58 |publisher=IEEE |doi=10.1109/hcs59251.2023.10254716|isbn=979-8-3503-3907-9 |s2cid=263180552 }}</ref> and computing systems<ref>{{Citation |title=HOTI 2023 - Day 1: Session 2 - Keynote by Bill Dally (NVIDIA): Accelerator Clusters | date=17 September 2023 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=napEsaJ5hMU |access-date=2024-03-09 |language=en}}</ref> using micro ring modulators utilizing multiple wavelengths.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-07-12 |title=Accelerator Clusters: the New Supercomputer {{!}} HotI30 (2023) |url=https://hoti.org/event/accelerator-clusters-the-new-supercomputer/ |access-date=2024-03-09 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Manipatruni |first1=Sasikanth |last2=Chen |first2=Long |last3=Lipson |first3=Michal |date=2010-07-23 |title=Ultra high bandwidth WDM using silicon microring modulators |journal=Optics Express |volume=18 |issue=16 |pages=16858–16867 |doi=10.1364/oe.18.016858 |pmid=20721078 |bibcode=2010OExpr..1816858M |issn=1094-4087|doi-access=free }}</ref> These systems can lead to the adoption of very high bandwidth, low energy per bit optical interconnects<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Manipatruni |first1=Sasikanth |last2=Lipson |first2=Michal |last3=Young |first3=Ian A. |date=March 2013 |title=Device Scaling Considerations for Nanophotonic CMOS Global Interconnects |url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6409381 |journal=IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=8200109 |doi=10.1109/JSTQE.2013.2239262 |arxiv=1207.6819 |bibcode=2013IJSTQ..1900109M |s2cid=6589733 |issn=1558-4542}}</ref> in GPUs<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Integrated GHZ silicon photonic interconnect with micrometer-scale modulators and detectors |url=https://opg.optica.org/oe/viewmedia.cfm?uri=oe-17-17-15248&html=true |access-date=2024-03-09 |journal=Optics Express |doi=10.1364/oe.17.015248 | date=2009 | last1=Chen | first1=Long | last2=Preston | first2=Kyle | last3=Manipatruni | first3=Sasikanth | last4=Lipson | first4=Michal | volume=17 | issue=17 | pages=15248–15256 | pmid=19688003 | arxiv=0907.0022 | bibcode=2009OExpr..1715248C }}</ref> and also lead to circuit switched GPU datacenters with significant boost to AI computing efficiency.

In 2009, he was elected to the [[National Academy of Engineering]] for contributions to the design of high-performance interconnect networks and parallel computer architectures.

He received the 2010 ACM/IEEE [[Eckert–Mauchly Award]] for "outstanding contributions to the architecture of interconnection networks and parallel computers."<ref>{{cite web|title=ACM Award Citation|url=http://awards.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2638401&srt=all&aw=148&ao=ECKMAUCH&yr=2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402210636/http://awards.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2638401&srt=all&aw=148&ao=ECKMAUCH&yr=2010|archive-date=2 April 2012|access-date=25 October 2010|publisher=[[Association for Computing Machinery]]}}</ref>

== Personal life ==

Dally is married and has two children. He had a flight mishap in 1992 when the [[Cessna 210]] he was flying from [[Hanscom Field, Massachusetts]] to [[Farmingdale, New York]] in bad weather conditions experienced an oil leak. He was forced to make a crash landing in the [[Long Island Sound]] and was retrieved by a rescue sailboat.<ref name=accident>{{Cite web |last=Ball |first=Charles H. |date=September 30, 1992 |title=Dally Has Harrowing Flight Mishap |url=https://news.mit.edu/1992/dally-0930 |website=MIT News}}</ref>

== Works ==

* {{Cite book |last1=Dally |first1=William J. |last2=Harting |first2=Curtis |title=Digital Design: A Systems Approach |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-521-19950-6}}

* {{Cite book |last1=Dally |first1=William J. |last2=Towles |first2=Brian |title=Principles and Practices of Interconnection Networks |publisher=[[Elsevier]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-12-200751-4}}

* {{Cite book |last1=Dally |first1=William J. |last2=Poulton |first2=John W. |title=Digital Systems Engineering |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-521-59292-5}}

[[Category:2002 Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery]]

[[Category:Fellows of the IEEE]]

[[Category:Stanford University School of Engineering faculty]]

[[Category:1960 births]]