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@make(letterhead,Phone"497-4430",Who"John McCarthy",Logo,Old,Department CSD)@style(indent 8)
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@begin(address)
Marconi Foundation



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@greeting(Gentlemen:)
@begin(body)
	It gives me great pleasure to suppport the nomination of Dr.
Lowell Wood for the Marconi Award.

	Lowell Wood is a leader in many fields, but I have full knowledge
only of his work on computers.

	Building a new large computer architecture is successfully
accomplished only rarely.  Computer companies generally copy their
previous architectures as long as they possibly can.

	Lowell Wood has successfully initiated and led the design
and construction of an extremely ambitious new computer without
the aid of a major computer company, building the design and construction
team from scratch and taking advantage of the construction
facilities commercially available.
He has also successfully organized the provision of a very advanced
software system for the machine.  The project compares favorably with
those done by major computer companies such as IBM, Control Data and
Cray Research, and the software plans are more comprehensive and better
worked out than any of these.

	The S-1 computer will be the first to use multiple processors
of large size in substantial numbers capable of running independent
programs in the same large memory.  The problem of building a computer
in this way has been recognized as important since the middle 1960s,
but until now, such a project hasn't been organized and run
successfully.  Both the hardware and the operating system present
novel problems, and the present evidence is that the S-1 group under
Lowell Wood's leadership is solving them successfully.

	The S-1 Project renews our faith that small groups of dedicated
people can accomplish tasks that baffle and frustrate large bureaucratic
organizations.
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Sincerely,




John McCarthy
Professor of Computer Science