John H. Crawford

Biography

John H. Crawford was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on February 2, 1953. He received the Sc.B. in Computer Science from Brown University, and the M.S. degree in Computer Science from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Mr. Crawford joined Intel in 1977 and worked in compiler development until 1982. He started with the 8086 architecture, which was initially implemented with 29,000 transistors, but lacked most of the characteristics required of a modern, multi-programmed computer. Mr. Crawford's principle contribution was in defining an appropriate set of compatible extensions that provided the necessary functionality, could be implemented in a single-chip with less than 300,000 transistors, and would provide for scalability through orders of magnitude improvement in transistor capacity and performance.

He has been involved with the Intel386™ and Intel486™ family architecture from its inception in 1982. He was Chief Architect ofboth the Intel386™ and the Intel486™ and co-manager for the development of the Pentium®, the company's nextgeneration microprocessor. The success of his efforts has been of tremendous service to the computer industry, including software developers, hardware manufacturers and users, by providing a platform with compatibility leveraged by technology advancements. Mr. Crawford is currently Director of Microprocessor Architecture at Intel Corporation. In this capacity he manages the development of future microprocessor architectures and development of the simulation tools necessary to validate functional completeness and performance. Mr. Crawford was named an Intel Fellow, Intel's highest technical position, in 1992.

In 1995, Mr. Crawford received the IEEE/ Association for Computing Machinery Eckert-Mauchly Award for contributions to computer and digital systems architecture. He has been awarded eight patents, published several papers on compiler technology and microprocessor architecture, and co-authored a book entitled Programming the 80386.

Mr. Crawford has elevated the role and prestige of his profession through support of Intel's K-12 education outreach programs. Some of his many activities include serving as a National Engineers Week "All Star"; judging young people's science projects at the Smithsonian's 150 year celebration, and participating as a judge for the International Science and Engineering Fair and Intel's "Invention of the Future" contest.