John Dawson and Viktor Decyk

One of us (Dawson) first met Glen about 30 years ago while attending a workshop on the Culler Fried "On Line Mathematical System." The system already contained many of Human-Computer Interactive systems which Glen pioneered.

Then in the mid 70s after Dawson came to UCLA, the Plasma Simulation Group at UCLA, acquired a Culler Harrison. Many people from the group (including Dawson and Decyk) commuted between UCLA and Santa Barbara putting our plasma models on the machine and learning how to use it. It was clear that the machine had remarkable performance, comparable to the best super computer at that time (the CDC 6600) but having only a small fraction of its cost. We moved the machine to UCLA. We soon found that there was also some pain associated with its use since it incorporated many new and highly advanced ideas and all the bugs had not been eliminated However in learning how to live with these we also learned a great deal about Glen's style of computing. Thus, what seemed at the time very painful in the end positioned us to move rapidly into the area of parallel computing on RISC processors. Glen's ideas are now incorporated on RISC chips.

We always enjoyed working with GLEN and we want to add our congratulations on a splendid career.

John M. Dawson
Viktor Decyk
Physics Department, UCLA

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