David May (computer scientist)

David May is a British computer scientist known for his contributions to the field of parallel computing, particularly in the design and implementation of transputers and the occam programming language.

May received his PhD from the University of Warwick. His work at Inmos, a British semiconductor company, resulted in the development of the transputer, a microprocessor designed for parallel processing. The transputer incorporated memory and communication links directly onto the chip, enabling it to be easily connected to other transputers to form parallel computing systems. This innovative architecture was a significant advancement in the pursuit of efficient and scalable parallel computation.

Alongside the transputer hardware, May also played a key role in the development of occam, a concurrent programming language designed to exploit the transputer's parallel architecture. Occam emphasizes message passing between concurrent processes, making it well-suited for programming distributed memory parallel systems. The language provided a formal framework for reasoning about concurrency and facilitated the development of parallel algorithms.

Following his work at Inmos, May held academic positions, including at the University of Bristol. He continued to contribute to research in parallel computing, focusing on topics such as concurrent systems and architectures.

May's work has had a lasting impact on the field of parallel computing, influencing the design of parallel programming languages and architectures. His contributions to the development of the transputer and occam represented a significant step forward in making parallel computing more accessible and practical.