computer science

Steve Chen (computer engineer)

Steve Chen (computer engineer) is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Steve Chen (computer engineer) rather than just read about it. In short: Steve Chen (Chinese: 陳世卿; pinyin: Chén Shìqīng; born 1944) is a Taiwanese computer engineer and internet entrepreneur. Chen was elected to the US National Academy of Engineering in 1991 for leadership in the development of super-computer architectures and their realization.

Key takeaways

Steve Chen (computer engineer) belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Steve Chen (computer engineer) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Steve Chen (computer engineer) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Steve Chen (Chinese: 陳世卿; pinyin: Chén Shìqīng; born 1944) is a Taiwanese computer engineer and internet entrepreneur. Chen was elected to the US National Academy of Engineering in 1991 for leadership in the development of super-computer architectures and their realization.

Education Chen earned a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) from National Taiwan University in 1966, a Master of Science (M.S.) from Villanova University in 1971 and a Ph.D. under David Kuck from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1975.

Career From 1975 through 1978 he worked for Burroughs Corporation on the design of the Burroughs large systems line of supercomputers. He is best known as the principal designer of the Cray X-MP and Cray Y-MP multiprocessor supercomputers. Chen left Cray Research in September 1987 after it dropped the MP line. With IBM's financial support, Chen founded Supercomputer Systems Incorporated (SSI) in January 1988. SSI was devoted to development of the SS-1 supercomputer, which was nearly completed before the estimated $150 million investment ran out. The Eau Claire, Wisconsin-based company went bankrupt in early 1993, leaving more than 300 employees jobless. An attempt to salvage the work was made by forming a new company, SuperComputer International (SCI), later that year. SCI was renamed Chen Systems in 1995. It was acquired by Sequent Computer Systems the following year. John Markoff, a technology journalist, wrote in the New York Times that Chen was considered "one of the nation's most brilliant supercomputer designers while working in this country for the technology pioneer Seymour Cray in the 1980s." In 1999, Chen became founder and CEO of Galactic Computing, a developer of supercomputing blade systems, based in Shenzhen, China. At Tonbu, Inc., his team designed and implemented the world's first fully scalable cloud computing system. A fully scalable dynamic process and application engine. By 2005 he started to focus on grid computing to model a human brain instead. By 2010, he was reported to be working on technology to use cloud computing to improve health care in rural China. In 2011, he founded Information Supergrid Technologies USA.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Steve Chen (computer engineer)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Steve Chen (computer engineer) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Steve Chen (computer engineer) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Steve Chen (computer engineer) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Steve Chen (computer engineer)

In research: Steve Chen (computer engineer) appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Steve Chen (computer engineer) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Steve Chen (computer engineer) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1944 births, American businesspeople in the computer industry, American people of Chinese descent, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Steve Chen (computer engineer) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Steve Chen (computer engineer) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Steve Chen (computer engineer) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Steve Chen (computer engineer) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Steve Chen (computer engineer) in simple terms?

Why does Steve Chen (computer engineer) matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Steve Chen (computer engineer)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Steve Chen (computer engineer).