Brian Randell is a computer scientist, specializing in research in software fault tolerance and dependability. He is also interested in, and a noted authority on, the early (prior to 1950) history of computers; he was a co-founder of the journal Annals of the History of Computing. Computer science (informally: CS or compsci) is, in its most general sense, the study of computation and information processing, both in hardware and in software. ... Computer software (or simply software) refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of a computer for some purpose. ... 1950 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Computing hardware has been an essential component of the process of calculation and data storage since it became necessary for data to be processed and shared. ...

His initial work, during 1957-1964 while he was employed at English Electric was on compilers; his work on Algol 60 is particularly known. He then joined IBM, where he worked at the T. J. Watson Research Center on high performance computer architectures and also on operating system design methodology. 1957 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1964 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... The English Electric Company was formed in 1918 and, during that year and 1919, acquired control of Dick, Kerr & Co of Preston, England, Willans & Robinson of Rugby , England, and the Phoenix Dynamo Manufacturing Company of Bradford. ... ALGOL (short for ALGOrithmic Language) is a programming language originally developed in the mid 1950s which became the de facto standard way to report algorithms in print for almost the next 30 years. ... International Business Machines Corporation (IBM, or colloquially, Big Blue) (NYSE: IBM) (incorporated June 15, 1911, in operation since 1888) is headquartered in Armonk, New York, USA. The company manufactures and sells computer hardware, software, and services. ... In computing, an operating system (OS) is the system software responsible for the direct control and management of hardware and basic system operations. ...

He then became Professor of Computing Science at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. His work there, from 1971 onward, was in the area of software fault tolerance. The University of Newcastle upon Tyne is located in Newcastle upon Tyne in the north of England. ... 1971 is a common year starting on Friday (click for link to calendar). ...

Major publications

• Brian Randell, L. J. Russell, Algol 60 Implementation (Academic Press, London, 1964)
• Brian Randell, (editor), The Origins of Digital Computers: Selected Papers (Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, 1973, 1975, 1982)

External links

• School of Computing Science - Brian Randell (http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/people/home.php?name=brian.randell)
  • Publications (http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/research/pubs/authors/byType.php?id=4)
• Personal web-page (http://homepages.cs.ncl.ac.uk/brian.randell/)
  • History of Computing Bibliography (http://homepages.cs.ncl.ac.uk/brian.randell/History/)