Gerald Estrin

Father of reconfigurable computing and variable structure computing, Estrin transformed how computational processes could be accelerated using variable configurations of specialized hardware modules.

Estrin received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Wisconsin in 1948, 1949, and 1951, respectively. He was an IEEE Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a member of the Board of Governors of the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel.

He served as research engineer in the von Neumann group at IAS from 1950–56, which led to an invitation from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel to direct the WEIZAC Project in 1954–55.

In the late 1950s, Estrin came up with the concept of Reconfigurable computing, which allows the acceleration of computational processes by using variable configurations of specialised hardware modules in addition to a sequential processing unit. The idea was practically realised as "The Fixed Plus Variable Structure Computer."