Brian Randell (born 1936) is a British

computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (al ...

, and Emeritus Professor at the School of Computing,

Newcastle University Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a UK public university, public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is ...

, United Kingdom. He specialises in research into software

fault tolerance Fault tolerance is the property that enables a system to continue operating properly in the event of the failure of one or more faults within some of its components. If its operating quality decreases at all, the decrease is proportional to the ...

and

dependability In systems engineering, dependability is a measure of a system's availability, reliability, maintainability, and in some cases, other characteristics such as durability, safety and security. In real-time computing, dependability is the ability to ...

, and is a noted authority on the early pre-1950 history of computing hardware.

Biography

Randell was employed at English Electric from 1957 to 1964 where he was working on

compiler In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs that ...

s. His work on

ALGOL 60 ALGOL 60 (short for ''Algorithmic Language 1960'') is a member of the ALGOL family of computer programming languages. It followed on from ALGOL 58 which had introduced code blocks and the begin and end pairs for delimiting them, representing a k ...

is particularly well known, including the development of the Whetstone compiler for the

English Electric KDF9 KDF9 was an early British 48-bit computer designed and built by English Electric (which in 1968 was merged into International Computers Limited (ICL)). The first machine came into service in 1964 and the last of 29 machines was decommissioned ...

, an early stack machine. In 1964, he joined IBM, where he worked at the

Thomas J. Watson Research Center The Thomas J. Watson Research Center is the headquarters for IBM Research. The center comprises three sites, with its main laboratory in Yorktown Heights, New York, U.S., 38 miles (61 km) north of New York City, Albany, New York and wit ...

on high performance

computer architecture In computer engineering, computer architecture is a description of the structure of a computer system made from component parts. It can sometimes be a high-level description that ignores details of the implementation. At a more detailed level, t ...

s and also on

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...

design methodology. In May 1969, he became a Professor of Computing Science at the then named University of Newcastle upon Tyne, where he has worked since then in the area of software

and

. He is a member of the Special Interest Group on Computers, Information and Society (SIGCIS) of the Society for the History of Technology CIS, and a founding member of the Editorial Board of the

IEEE Annals of the History of Computing The ''IEEE Annals of the History of Computing'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by the IEEE Computer Society. It covers the history of computing, computer science, and computer hardware. It was founded in 1979 by the AFIP ...

journal. He is a Fellow of the

Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional member ...

(2008). He was, until 1969, a member of the

International Federation for Information Processing The International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) is a global organisation for researchers and professionals working in the field of computing to conduct research, develop standards and promote information sharing. Established in 196 ...

(IFIP)

IFIP Working Group 2.1 IFIP Working Group 2.1 on Algorithmic Languages and Calculi is a working group of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP). IFIP WG 2.1 was formed as the body responsible for the continued support and maintenance of the progra ...

(WG2.1) on Algorithmic Languages and Calculi, which specified, maintains, and supports the

programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language. The description of a programming ...

and

ALGOL 68 ALGOL 68 (short for ''Algorithmic Language 1968'') is an imperative programming language that was conceived as a successor to the ALGOL 60 programming language, designed with the goal of a much wider scope of application and more rigorously d ...

. He is also a founding member of IFIP WG2.3 on Programming Methodology, and of IFIP WG10.4 on Dependability and Fault Tolerance. He is married (to Liz, a teacher of French) and has four children.

Work

Brian Randell's main research interests are in the field of computer science, specifically on system dependability and fault tolerance. His interest in the history of computing was started by coming across the then almost unknown work of

Percy Ludgate Percy Edwin Ludgate (2 August 1883 – 16 October 1922) was an Irish amateur scientist who designed the second analytical engine (general-purpose Turing-complete computer) in history. Life Ludgate was born on 2 August 1883 in Skibbereen, ...

. This was over thirty years ago, when he was preparing an inaugural lecture, and led to his producing the book: "The Origins of Computers". This triggered his further investigation of the Colossus wartime code-breaking machines.

Bletchley Park

In 1972, Randell wrote to Prime Minister

Ted Heath Sir Edward Richard George Heath (9 July 191617 July 2005), often known as Ted Heath, was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975. Heath a ...

regarding the wartime status of

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...

, and obtained the first-ever admission of the existence of the wartime organisation, let alone its impact. Subsequently, the role of Bletchley Park and its main outstation at Eastcote, in reducing the length of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, has been widely acknowledged, as is the pioneering role of the

Colossus computer Colossus was a set of computers developed by British codebreakers in the years 1943–1945 to help in the cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher. Colossus used thermionic valves (vacuum tubes) to perform Boolean and counting operations. Colossus ...

in the history of the development of computing. Randell was researching the history of computer science in Britain for a conference on the history of computing held at the

Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), located a short distance northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, ...

, New Mexico on 10-15 June 1976, and got permission to present a paper on wartime development of the COLOSSI at the

Post Office Research Station The Post Office Research Station was first established as a separate section of the General Post Office in 1909. In 1921, the Research Station moved to Dollis Hill, north west London, initially in ex-army huts. The main permanent buildings at ...

, Dollis Hill (in October 1975 the British Government released a series of captioned photographs from the Public Record Office). The interest'in the “revelations” in his paper resulted in a special evening meeting when Randell and Allen Coombs answered further questions. . In 1977 Randell pubished an article ''The First Electronic Computer'' in several journals.

Software engineering

In the 1960s, Randell was "involved in the original

NATO Software Engineering Conferences The NATO Software Engineering Conferences were held in 1968 and 1969. The conferences were attended by international experts on computer software who agreed on defining best practices for software grounded in the application of engineering. The res ...

" in 1968 on Software engineering. At the time he was working at IBM in the very secret Project Y and then ACS super-computer projects.

Software fault tolerance

Starting in the 1970s, Randell "set up the project that initiated research into the possibility of software

, and introduced the ''recovery block'' concept. Subsequent major developments included the Newcastle Connection, and the prototype distributed Secure System".Brian Randell
at School of Computing Science. Last updated March 2008. Retrieved 17 October 2008.

Northern Informatics Applications Agency

In the 1990s, Randell "became involved in a project to improve

data network A computer network is a set of computers sharing resources located on or provided by network nodes. The computers use common communication protocols over digital interconnections to communicate with each other. These interconnections are ...

ing provisions in the North of England, and to promote their effective use by all sectors of the community. This project resulted in the setting up of NiAA, the Northern Informatics Applications Agency". He wrote: "I served for several years as a member of NiAA's Management Group, until my attempts to delegate this to others bore fruit! NiAA existed, and worked to good effect, for seven years."

Genealogy

Randell has for many years been one of the leading members of the team of volunteers responsible for

GENUKI GENUKI is a genealogy web portal, run as a charitable trust. It "provides a virtual reference library of genealogical information of particular relevance to the UK and Ireland". It gives access to a large collection of information, with the emphas ...

, the web portal for

Genealogy Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kins ...

in the United Kingdom and Ireland. He maintains the pages relating to the county of

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

, and has transcribed and made available online many documents of genealogical interest.

Notes

Publications

Randell published several articles and books. A selection:Brian Randell
Publications. * * Articles * * * * *

References

External links

* , School of Computing Science * , personal
History of Computing Bibliography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Randell, Brian 1936 births Living people Academics of Newcastle University British computer scientists IBM employees British software engineers Software engineering researchers Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery Fellows of the Society of Genealogists