I'd never heard of him. He's done a lot of interesting stuff, mostly in high performance computing. From his personal page:<p>"Gustafson has recently finished writing a book, <i>The End of Error: Unum Computing</i>, that presents a new approach to computer arithmetic: the unum. The universal number, or unum format, encompasses all IEEE floating-point formats as well as fixed-point and exact integer arithmetic. This approach obtains more accurate answers than floating-point arithmetic yet uses fewer bits in many cases, saving memory, bandwidth, energy, and power."<p>Has anybody read it?<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1482239868" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/dp/1482239868</a>
Too bad Seymour Cray is no longer around to pick on, or to inspire.<p>I was lucky enough to tour the Chippewa Falls facility early on - serial number 5 of the Cray-1 was undergoing final tests before delivery.<p>We were lucky enough to see Seymour in his office. He pointed to a pumpkin on his desk, and declared that it was the Cray-3. His daughter had grown it, and since she knew he was already working on a Cray-2, she decided this would be the Cray-3.