Qualifications and Experience

Academic Qualifications

BSc honours (summa cum laude) and PhD degree in Computer Science from the University of Edinburgh.

Professional Activities

Member of the IEEE, IEEE Computer Society and IEEE Communications Society.

Member of the program committee for the IEEE Field Programmable Custom Computing Machines (FCCM) conference and have previously served on several other conference program committees.

Reviewed papers for several IEEE journals and been an external examiner on PhD theses in the area of programmable logic.

Given invited presentations on programmable logic at numerous international conferences and workshops.

Professional Experience

From 1989 to 1993 I was technical director of Algotronix Ltd. and was responsible for the architecture and implementation of the CAL1024 FPGA chip and the CHS2X4 custom computer. These products are widely recognised as pioneering the use of FPGA's for reconfigurable computing.

In 1993 Xilinx Inc. acquired Algotronix and from 1993 to 1997 I was manager of silicon design at Xilinx Inc.'s facility in Scotland. I was responsible for the architecture of the XC6200 FPGA family and recruited and managed the silicon design and applications groups. The applications group was responsible for the PCI based XC6200 development system, which has been further developed by Virtual Computer Corporation and has become the world's best selling reconfigurable computer. This group also developed demonstration applications in the areaas of signal processing, image processing and cryptography. In 1997 I took on an expanded role providing technical leadership for hardware and software within Xilinx's Scotland facility and studying new business opportunities for reconfigurable computing.

In 1998 following a re-organisation I left Xilinx to reform Algotronix.

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