Akihiko Yamada

Biography

This page is an appreciation of the work of Professor Akihiko Yamada. He is elderly and I want to speak of him while he is still with us. [David Walden, August 2020]

I first knew Prof. Yamada when we overlapped on the IEEE Computer Society History Committee. Awareness of Yamada led to awareness that he was a frequent contributor to the Events and Sightings Department of the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. In fact, he has been the most dependable contributor to the department between 2005 and 2020 (see list below). His contributions to the department are an impressive aid to anyone learning about the history-of-computing activities in Japan.

In addition to his writings for the IEEE Annals and service on the Computer Society History Committee, Professor Yamada was a member of the Society’s Board of Governors and lent significant support to opening the IEEE Computer Society's Tokyo office — IEEE's first office in the Asia-Pacific region). He also has published in Japan on its computing history.

As an expression of Yamada’s support of other researchers, in 2015 Radomir Stanković collected and prepared a small book entitled Comments by Akihiko Yamada — History of Computing in Japan, a photographic view of Yamada's work studying and documenting Japanese computing history. The document "On Dr. Stankovic's connections to Prof. Yamada" by Stanković provides some details about Prof. Yamada's activities and their value to TICSP and to computing history more generally.

(The booklet mentioned above is one of several history publications with which Stanković has been involved in a belief that it is important that technologists be aware of the history of their technology; see "The Work in History of Information Sciences at TICSP" which describes the work at the Tampere International Center for Signal Processing to document a number of areas of signal processing history.)

[need to review the following list for accuracy]

Bibliography for Yamada

Akihiko Yamada, Akihiro Kawaguchi, Kazutoshi Takahashi, and Shunichi Kato, "Microprogramming Design support System," DAC 1974, p. 137-142.
Akihiko Yamada, Nobuo Wakatsuki, Hideo Shibano, Osamu Itoh, Kyoji Tomita, and Shigehiro Funatsu, "Automatic test generation for large digital circuits," DAC 1977, p. 78-83.
Akihiko Yamada, Nobuo Wakatsuki, T. Fukui, and Shigehiro Funatsu, "Automatic System Level Test Generation and Fault Location for Large Digital Systems," DAC 1978, p. 347-352.
Tohru Sasaki, Akihiko Yamada, Shunichi Kato, Terufumi Nakazawa, Kyoji Tomita, and Nobuyoshi Nomizu, "MIXS: A mixed level simulator for large digital system logic verification," DAC 1980, p. 626-633.
Shigeru Takasaki, Masato Kawai, Shigehiro Funatsu, and Akihiko Yamada, "A Calculus of Testability Measure," DAC 1981, p. 347-352.
Akihiko Yamada: Design automation status in Japan. DAC 1981: 43-50.
Tohru Sasaki, Akihiko Yamada, Toshinori Aoyama, Katsutoshi Hasegawa, Shunichi Kato, Shinichi Sato: Hierarchical design verification for large digital systems. DAC 1981: 105-112
Shigeru Takasaki, Masato Kawai, Shigehiro Funatsu, Akihiko Yamada: A Calculus of Testability Measure at the Functional Level. ITC 1981: 95-101
Minoru Nomura, Shinichi Sato, Nobuo Takano, Toshinori Aoyama, Akihiko Yamada: Timing verification system based on delay time hierarchical nature. DAC 1982: 622-628
Kazutoshi Takahashi, Etsuo Takahashi, Tatsushige Bitoh, Toshinori Aoyama, Akihiko Yamada: MDS: An improved total system for firmware development. MICRO 1982: 50-56
Akihiko Yamada: Design Automation for Large Mainframes and Supercomputers in NEC. IFIP Congress 1989: 531 Akihiko Yamada: Challenge of design and test of ultra-large-scale circuits. ITC 1990: 23.
K. Kajita, Hiroyuki Kobayashi, Shogo Muramatsu, Akihiko Yamada, Hitoshi Kiya: A design method for oversampled paraunitary DFT filter banks using householder factorization. EUSIPCO 1996: 1-4.
Shogo Muramatsu, Akihiko Yamada, Hitoshi Kiya: A design method OF 2-D axial-symmetric paraunitary filter banks with a lattice structure. EUSIPCO 1998: 1-4.
Shogo Muramatsu, Akihiko Yamada, Hitoshi Kiya: A design method of multidimensional linear-phase paraunitary filter banks with a lattice structure. IEEE Trans. Signal Process. 47(3): 690-700 (1999).
Takeo Kanade, Akihiko Yamada: Multi-subregion based probabilistic approach toward pose-invariant face recognition. CIRA 2003: 954-959.
Akihiko Yamada, "Obituary: Shigeru Takahashi," Events and Sightings, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (2006), 28‑1, p. 91-92.
Akihiko Yamada, "The 50th Anniversary of the First Japanese Digital Computer," Events and Sightings, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (2006), 28‑2, p. 67-69.
Akihiko Yamada, "Obituary: Kazuhiro Fuchi," Events and Sightings, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (2007), 29‑4, p. 95.
Akihiko Yamada, "Obituary: Hiroshi Wada," Events and Sightings, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (2008), 30‑2, p. 68.
Akihiko Yamada, "Obituary: Zen-iti Kiyasu," Events and Sightings, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (2008), 30‑2, p. 68-69.
Akihiko Yamada, "PC-1 Parametron Computer: 50th anniversary," Events and Sightings, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (2008), 30‑3, p. 74.
Akihiko Yamada, "Osaka University: Exhibit of 1950s computer," Events and Sightings, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (2008), 30‑3, p. 74-75.
Akihiko Yamada, "Conference memorializes Takakazu Seki," Events and Sightings, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (2009), 31‑1, p. 64.
Akihiko Yamada, "50th anniversary: SENAC-1," Events and Sightings, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (2009), 31‑1, p. 64-65.
Akihiko Yamada, "IPSJ Information Processing Technology Heritage Program," Events and Sightings, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (2009), 31‑3, p. 78-80.
Akihiko Yamada, "ELIS Revival Festival," Events and Sightings, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (2010), 32-4, pp. 91-92.
Akihiko Yamada, "IESP 50th Anniversary; IPSJ Third Information Processing Technology Heritage Certification," Events and Sightings, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (2011), 33-2, pp. 107-109.
Akihiko Yamada, "History of Computers Exhibition at Hiroshima City Library," Events and Sightings, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (2011), 33-3, pp. 82-83.
Akihiko Yamada, "2011 NEC C&C Foundation Prize Ceremony," Events and Sightings, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (2012), 34-2, p. 63-67.
Akihiko Yamada, "IPSJ 4th Information Processing Technology Heritage Certification Ceremony," Events and Sightings, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (2012), 34-2, p. 63-67.
Akihiko Yamada, "IEEJ Commoration: One Step in Electrotechnology," Events and Sightings, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (2012), 34-3, p. 70.
Akihiko Yamada, "2012 Koyoto Prize to Ivan Sutherland," Events and Sightings, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (2013), 35-1, p. 67-71.
Akihiko Yamada, "IEEJ Technical Meeting on the History of Computer Engineering," Events and Sightings, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (2013), 35-2, pp. 76-78.
Akihiko Yamada, "IPSJ 75th National Convention at Tohoku University," Events and Sightings, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (2013), 35-2, pp. 78-81.
Akihiko Yamada, "UNIVAC 120 in Japan," Events and Sightings, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (2013), 35-3, pp. 73-74.
Akihiko Yamada, "Kyoto Computer Gakuin Celebrates 50th Anniversary," Events and Sightings, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (2013), 35-3, p. 74-76.
Akihiko Yamada, "IEEE Milestone Awarded to Toshiba's T1100 Laptop PC," Events and Sightings, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (2014), 36-1, p. 83-84.
Akihiko Yamada, "TCP at 40: Celebrating the Conception of Internet Protocols," Events and Sightings, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (2014), 36-3, pp. 86-88.
Akihiko Yamada, "IPSJ Certifies 100 IP Technology Heritage Artifacts in 10 Years," Events and Sightings, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (2018), 40‑3, p. 105-112.
Akihiko Yamada, "Parametron and Relay Computers Exhibition Held at Tokyo University of Science in November, 2018," Events and Sightings, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (2019), 41‑1, p. 61-63.
Akihiko Yamada, "NEC C&C Prize Ceremony," Events and Sightings, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (2018), 41‑2, p. 64-66.
Radomir S. Stanković, Tsutomu Sasao, Jaakko T. Astola , and Akihiko Yamada, "Remarks on the Design of First Digital Computers in Japan — Contributions of Yasuo Komamiya, Computer Aided Systems Theory" — EUROCAST 2019, p. 123-130, lsi-cad.com/sasao/Papers/files/EUROCAST2019_stanko.pdf.

Oral history interviewing in Japan

Yamada served as chair of the Oral History subcommittee of the IPSJ (museum.ipsj.or./en/index,html) History Committee. The committee interviewed the following computer pioneers selected by the IPSJ.

南沢宣郎　Minamisawa Noburo

高田昇平　Takada Shohei

和田弘　　Wada Hiroshi

喜安善市　Kiyasu Zen-iti

穂坂衛　　Hosaka Mamoru

萩原宏　　Hagiwara Hiroshi

安井裕　　Yasui Hiroshi

中澤喜三郎　Nakazawa Kisaburo

相磯秀夫　Aiso Hideo

野口正一　Noguchi Shoichi

山田博　　Yamada Hiroshi

三浦武雄　Miura Takeo

坂井利之　Sakai Toshiyuki

尾関雅則　Ozeki Masanori

山本卓眞　Yamamoto Takuma

西野博二　Nishino Hiroji

戸田　巌　Toda Iwao

嶋　正利　Shima Masatoshi

大野　豊　Ohno Yutaka

天羽浩平　Amo Kohei

石井善昭　Ishii Yoshiteru

宮城嘉男　Miyagi Yoshio

萱島興三　Kayashima Kozo

和田英一　Wada Eiiti

浦城恒雄　Uraki Tsuneo

室賀三郎　Muroga Saburo

飯島泰蔵　Iijima Taizo

矢島脩三　Yajima Shuzo

渡部和　　Watanabe Hitoshi

The above list was provided to Yamada by the IPSJ office.