Nathan Brookwood | Research Fellow Emeritus
Insight 64

One of Nathan Brookwood's associates characterized his career by the word-length of the machines with which he had been associated. Early in his career he developed 12-bit insights on a 12-bit DEC PDP-8 system.  He graduated to 16-bit insights on a DEC PDP-11, and 32-bit insights on 32-bit DEC VAX, Prime x50, and a variety of x86 workstations and servers. At Insight 64, he attained industry notoriety as he guided the transition from proprietary 64-bit system architectures to industry-standard x64-based systems using AMD and Intel 64-bit extensions. These days, Nathan provides historic perspectives on all things related to computing and semiconductor technology. He notes that when he started his career at Univac in 1967, he could walk inside the 6-foot by 8-foot vacuum tube Univac II CPU that ran a few ancient programs Univac had never rewritten for more modern systems. Now, like everyone else, he carries a CPU that is infinitely more powerful in his pocket. It's amazing what 59 years of continuing performance improvements can yield. Nathan's response to questions regarding when he will migrate to 128-bit architectures is that he has too much brand equity in "Insight 64" to ever contemplate such a move.