The 801 was a RISC microprocessor architecture designed by IBM in the 1970s, and used in various roles in IBM until the 1980s. Download high resolution version (950x367, 41 KB) This is a copyrighted and/or trademarked logo. ... Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC), is a microprocessor CPU design philosophy that favors a smaller and simpler set of instructions that all take about the same amount of time to execute. ... 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. ...

The 801 started as a pure research project led by John Cocke at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in building 801. They were looking for ways to improve performance of their existing machines, studying traces of programs running on System/370 mainframes and looking at the compiler code. From this project led the idea that it was possible to make a very small and very fast core, which could then be used to implement the microcode for any machine. John Cocke (May 30, 1925 - July 16, 2002) was an American computer scientist recognised for his large contribution to computer architecture and optimizing compiler design. ... The Thomas J. Watson Research Center is the headquarters for the IBM Research Division. ... The System/370 is a model range of IBM mainframes introduced in the early 1970s as the successors to the System/360 family. ... A microprogram is a program consisting of microcode that controls the different parts of a computers central processing unit (CPU). ...

The project then moved on to produce the design as a CPU, also called the 801. The resulting CPU was produced in 1977 running at the then-fast speed of 15 MIPS. It was used in a variety of IBM devices including channel controllers for their 370 mainframes, various networking devices, and eventually the 9370 mainframe core itself. Million instructions per second (MIPS) is a measure of a computers processor speed. ... A channel controller is a simple CPU used to handle the task of moving data to and from the memory of a computer. ...

In the early 1980s the lessons learned on the 801 were put back into the new America Project, which led to the IBM POWER architecture. POWER is a RISC CPU architecture designed by IBM. The name is a backronym for Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC. The POWER series microprocessors are used as the main CPU in many of IBMs servers, minicomputers, workstations, and supercomputers. ...

John Cocke later won both the Turing award and the Presidential Medal of Science for his work on the 801. John Cocke (May 30, 1925 - July 16, 2002) was an American computer scientist recognised for his large contribution to computer architecture and optimizing compiler design. ... The A.M. Turing Award is given annually by the Association for Computing Machinery to a person selected for contributions of a technical nature made to the computing community. ... National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science, also called the Presidential Medal of Science, is an honor given by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social...

External link

• The evolution of RISC technology at IBM by John Cocke – IBM Journal of R&D, Volume 44, Numbers 1/2, p.48 (2000)