John Harrison Wharton (21 September 1954 – 14 November 2018) was an American engineer specializing in microprocessors and their applications. Wharton designed the Intel MCS-51, one of the most implemented instruction set architectures of all time.
John H. Wharton | |
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Born | [1] | September 21, 1954
Died | November 14, 2018[2]
[1] Redwood City, California, USA | (aged 64)
Alma mater | |
Engineering career | |
Discipline | |
Employer(s) |
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Significant design | Intel MCS-51 |
Website | www |
John Wharton graduated from Northwestern University with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1976 and a master's degree in computer science in 1977, having earlier attended Yale University for two years before transferring to Northwestern.[3] He was hired by Intel at the instigation of Tom Rolander,[4] working there for 5 years before leaving to start his consulting company, Applications Research.[3] He was a founding member of the editorial board of Microprocessor Report.[5] He first spoke at the Asilomar Microcomputer Workshop in 1980, along with Carver Mead, Jim Clark, Dave Patterson and Gary Kildall.[6] He first chaired a session in 1983, and became chair of the workshop in 1985, a position he continued to hold through 1997. He was Program Chair from 1999 through 2017.[6] From 1989 to 2004, with Dennis Allison, he coordinated Stanford University's EE380 course.[7]
J. H. Wharton was the architect of the instruction set of the Intel MCS-51,[3] commonly known as the 8051. The MCS-51 and its derivatives are Intel's highest volume microprocessor,[8] and among the most implemented instruction set architectures of all time.[2][3]
Wharton was the subject of a 1999 New York Times profile,[8] and a 2001 article about his trips to Fiji to collect debris from the deorbit of the Mir space station.[9] In 1996 he appeared on Late Night with David Letterman.[8][10] His friends have created a memorial Web site.[11]