Supercomputer in your hand: history & future direction

Thursday, April 26, 2012 3:30 p.m. CHE 2110

Dr. Nam-Sung (Stephen) Woo President System LSI Business Device Solutions Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd

Host: Prof. Ashok Agrawala

Title: Supercomputer in your hand: history & future direction

Abstract: In this talk, we will present recent advances of computing power in mobile devices and how the progress has been achieved. We will describe multicore system of application processors that support multimedia applications. Examples of industry, including Samsung Electronics, will be presented. We will compare this phenomenon against the multiprocessor activities several decades ago. We will also discuss positive outcome of interaction among different disciplines, namely, computer science, electrical engineering and material engineering.

Bio: Dr. Nam-Sung Woo is a President and General Manager of the System LSI Business of Samsung Electronics' Device Solutions. Samsung's System LSI Business consists of 3 major business areas - SOC, LSI, and ASIC/Foundry - and boasts a diverse product portfolio that includes display driver ICs, smart card ICs, application processors, and CMOS image sensors.

Dr. Woo first joined Samsung Electronics in 2004 as Executive Vice President and head of Mobile Solution Development at its System LSI Business, and in 2007 was appointed as head of SOC Research and Development. Dr. Woo became General Manager of the System LSI Business in May 2008 and was promoted to President in December 2010.

Since joining Samsung Electronics, Dr. Woo gained recognition for overseeing product development of application processors for Smartphone and Tablet PC in achieving number one market share globally, and for guiding the successful acquisition of an Israeli image sensor company in 2007.

Prior to joining Samsung Electronics, Dr. Woo served from 1999 to 2003 in several senior management positions at Texas Instruments(TI) related to wireless technologies, rising to the position of Business Director and General Manager of Texas Instrument's UMTS Terminal Chipset Business in 2001. He was also a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff (DMTS) at TI. From 1996 to 1999 Dr. Woo served as President of Sansearch, a CDMA chipset solution company in San Diego, California. From 1983-1996 he served as a research scientist at the Communication Research Division of Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey. His research areas included computer architecture, parallel processing, and VLSI design.

Dr. Woo has published numerous papers and articles, and received Best Paper Award at the 31st IEEE Design Automation Conference in 1994. He received B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Seoul National University, M.S. in Electrical Engineering from KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology), and Ph.D in Computer Science from the University of Maryland, College Park, USA.