Eike Jessen

Eike Jessen 2008

Eike Jessen , also Eicke Jessen (born August 28, 1933 in Göttingen ; † March 18, 2015 in Tutzing ) was a German computer scientist and professor of computer science with a focus on architecture and the use of computer systems. He was an initiator and co-founder of the German Research Network (DFN).

Life

Berlin 1935–1964

Eike Jessen is the third of four sons of law and political science professor Jens Peter Jessen and his wife Käthe Scheffer. After a youth in Berlin that was shaped by the war, his father's participation in the resistance against the Hitler regime and finally his execution in connection with the assassination attempt of July 20, 1944 , Eike Jessen began studying electrical communications engineering at the 1954 Technical University of Berlin , which he completed in 1960 with a thesis on intermediate frequency stabilization for solid-state lasers. From 1960 to 1964 Eike Jessen worked as a research assistant with Wolfgang Haack at the TU Berlin in the research group Digital Evaluation of Radar Information and was involved in the development of a computer-aided real-time radar tracking system for civil aviation in the Federal Republic of Germany . As a senior engineer at the computer center of the TU Berlin, Eike Jessen gave the lecture "Theory of program-controlled computing devices" and received her doctorate in 1964 with a dissertation on an associative processor , which for the first time allowed the linking of data records according to various criteria directly in the associative memory.

Constance 1964–1972

Eike Jessen switched to industrial development as head of development, in the department of electronic computing systems at Telefunken GmbH, which later became AEG-Telefunken in Konstanz , headed by Fritz-Rudolf Güntsch . From 1964 to 1972 he set up a computer development department for hardware and basic software with 250 employees, implemented goal-oriented management and developed close relationships with IT groups at universities.

The most important projects in the department headed by Eike Jessen were:

• the mainframe computer TR 4 (program and device extensions)
• the mainframe computer TR 440 (development of hardware and software until 1968)
• the small commercial computer TR 10 (start of production)
• the middle computer TR 86 (development start, until 1967)
• the military control computer TR 84 (development start, until 1967)
• Working for a TR 440 successor (TR 500)
• "Biene", a pre-development project for a polymorphic computer (together with W. Händler, Erlangen)

These computer projects required new management methods, aids and tools that were not yet available on the market at the time:

• the development and use of computer-aided CAD for logic simulation and circuit board design.
• the adaptation and introduction of the network plan technology (PERT) for thousands of process nodes as a management and control instrument for the administration of one of the world's largest project network plans at the time.

The decision to use the integrated MECL-1 circuit family in the high-performance computer TR 440 was important.

Hamburg 1972–1983

In 1972 Eike Jessen returned to the university as a professor and set up a chair for computer architecture at the University of Hamburg . With his colleagues he researched system constructions from the point of view of quantitatively measurable services and cost laws. During a stay in the USA in 1981 he got to know the computer network CSNET, which was introduced there at the same time, for universities and research institutions in industry and government. He took this as a model when Eike Jessen began to get involved with the German Research Network (DFN) in 1982. The Federal Ministry for Research and Technology financed a preliminary study for the establishment of such a network in Germany. Eike Jessen was in charge of the technical structure and the development of a program on the provisional board.

Munich since 1983

After moving to the Technical University of Munich in 1983, Eike Jessen continued the system analysis and modeling of individual computing systems and later also concentrated more on computer networks, distributed systems and grids in the context of "building the DFN". Investigations were carried out on systems under non-stationary order flows, on the language requirements for modeling computer systems and on functional (stateless) model worlds. Together with Wolfgang Bibel he investigated various problems of knowledge representation, inference procedures, logical programming and the analysis and classification of inhibiting phenomena in highly parallel computers.

After founding the DFN-Verein as a large BMBF joint project in 1984, Eike Jessen was a member of the founding board until 1990 and chairman of the board from 1988 to 1990. During this period, the DFN was able to conclude a contract with Deutsche Telekom in 1989 to set up and operate the first generation of a scientific network and, after reunification in 1990, to integrate the facilities of the new federal states into this network.

As dean of the Faculty of Computer Science and Mathematics (1990–1992), he was committed to the division into two independent faculties and thus the making of computer science at the Technical University of Munich . In 1993 he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon for his services to German computer science . As 2nd  Vice President of the Technical University of Munich (1994–1996), he created the first university development plan; he was responsible for international relations, central facilities and spatial planning. 1997 to 2005 he took over the chairmanship of the DFN again. During this time he received in 2004 from the Gesellschaft für Informatik  eV (GI), of which he was the founding director, the award "Fellow of the GI" for his high scientific merits and voluntary work in the long-term commitment to the German research network and the German science network.

Eike Jessen continued to work as emeritus at the Institute for Computer Science at the Technical University of Munich, where he gave lectures. He performed various expert activities and was chairman of the external advisory boards of the EU-funded grid project EGEE and Baltic Grid. Eike Jessen has been a member of the Schleswig-Holstein University Council since 2007. Until his death in 2015, he supervised the promotion of outstanding students at the Faculty of Computer Science at the Technical University of Munich, best.in.tum.

Eike Jessen was married to Inge Jessen (1942–1998). They had two daughters together. Eike Jessen died on March 18, 2015 of complications from cancer in his home in Tutzing.

Services

• Head of TR-440 development: The TR 440 computer developed from 1964 to 1971 under the direction of Eike Jessen belonged to the first generation of commercial subscriber systems, which for the first time enabled the computing power of a large computer to be used by many users practically at the same time Users and computer programs could enter into direct dialogue. When it was completed, the TR 440 was the fastest machine ever built in Europe. (see Constance)
• Teaching and research: Eike Jessen recognized early on the need to scientifically substantiate the development of computers with regard to their performance as an overall system, and consequently pursued this goal in his research work (see Hamburg and Munich). Fundamental work was carried out on the analysis and optimization of computing systems with regard to their performance and reliability. In addition, Eike Jessen supervised one of the most important research groups in the field of automatic proof, founded by Wolfgang Bibel.
• Establishment and development of the German Research Network (DFN): With the German Research Network, German science received a modern technical infrastructure in 1984, including the organization responsible for continuously developing this infrastructure. He played a key role in the development of various generations of the science network up to a fiber-optic high-speed network (X-WiN). Eike Jessen has decisively shaped the DFN programmatically and since 1982 has continuously built the DFN into a service organization for science, which is supported by its institutional members from the science sector.

Publications

• On the dimensioning of buffer storage, report no. 10 of the series “Digital Evaluation of Radar Information” (DAR), published by the Hahn-Meitner-Institut Berlin and the Technical University Berlin, 1960
• Rapid collision check for air traffic control, electronic data processing, 3 (1961), No. 10, pp. 93-99
• The Influence of Some Basic Laws of Radar Computing on the Bandwidth of Transmission Paths, DAR No. 37, 1962, and Proc. AGARD Conf. 1962, Düsseldorf
• Surveillance Radar Data Reduction, Proc. IFIP Congress 1962, North Holland, Amsterdam 1962
• (with H. Springer): Air traffic control is automated, Der Tagesspiegel, March 4, 1964
• About associative storage, dissertation Technische Universität Berlin, 1964
• Associative storage, electronic data processing, supplement 5, Vieweg, Braunschweig 1964
• Associative memory with destructive readout, patent specification, April 6, 1965
• Information from the socket, Umschau, August 1967
• The operating system of the computer TR 440, in Händler, W. (Ed.): Participant computing systems, Oldenbourg, Munich, 1968
• Problems of the large computer systems, Electronic Journal A, Volume 89 (1968), pp. 544-547
• Trends in data technology, Electronic Journal A, Volume 91 (1970), pp. 676-679
• Development automation in large computer systems, International Electronic Rundschau, 1970, Issue 12, and Technische Rundschau, No. 64, December 24, 1971, and Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, 1971, Issue 6
• What responsibility do computer scientists have for the consequences of machine data processing? GMD-Spiegel, 1974 No. 2
• Trend and future of data technology, precision engineering and measurement technology, Volume 83 (1975), Issue 1, pp. 1-4
• Architecture of digital computing systems, Heidelberger Taschenbuch Nr. 175, Springer, Berlin, 1975
• Waiting networks as traffic models of computing systems, Informatik-Spektrum, 1 (1978), pp. 90-100
• Design and evaluation of computing systems, in Zimmermann, G. (Ed.): Structure and operation of computing systems, IT specialist reports No. 27, Springer, Berlin, 1980
• Review of computer developments at the Technical University of Berlin 1953–1964, festive colloquium on the occasion of the honorary doctorate and the 80th birthday of Prof. Dr. Dr. hc Wolfgang Haack, Free University Berlin and Hahn-Meitner-Institut Berlin, Festband, pp. 18–42, Berlin, 1982
• The German Research Network (DFN), in Heger, D .: Communication in distributed systems, Springer, Berlin, 1985
• with O. Schoen: Performability, Informatik-Spektrum 8 (1986), pp. 340-341
• with Rüdiger Valk : Computing Systems - Fundamentals of Modeling, Springer, Berlin, 1986
• Influence of parameter changes on the performance of workstation computers, report by the Institute for Computer Science, Technical University of Munich, October 11, 1987
• H. Anlauff, R. Fröhlich, E. Jessen, F. Kurfeß, W. Materna, J. Seehusen, J .: Data processing technology II: Architecture of computer systems, Fernuniversität Hagen, 1988
• with W. Ertel, Chr. Suttner: Optimal Multiprogramming Control for Parallel Computations, in: Bode, A ,. Dal Cin, M., Parallel Computer Architectures: Theory, Hardware, Software, Applications, Springer, LNCS 732, 1993
• Performance of parallel computers, it + ti 2/1995, pp. 5–6
• A. Brüggemann-Klein, A. Endres, H. Werner, E. Jessen, R. Weber: The DFG Project Chablis - Billing and Payment Concepts for Services of Digital Libraries, ABI-Technik, 18 (1998), p. 398-402
• Development of the technical foundations of the information society, in Mahle, WA: Orientation in the information society, UVK Medien, 2000
• The future of the Internet, in H. Kubicek: Jahrbuch Telekommunikation und Gesellschaft, 2001
• Science Networks in Germany and Europe: Expectations and Achievements, GI Annual Conference 2003, pp. 121–127, Springer, 2003
• Heinz-Gerd Hegering , E. Jessen: The structure of the German research network, science management, vol. 5 (2004), No. 1, pp. 4-5
• Origin of the Virtual Memory Concept, IEEE Annals History of Computing, pp. 71-72, 2004
• J. Pattloch, K. Ullmann, E. Jessen: X-WiN: The New German National Research and Education Network, PIK 29 (2006), Issue 1, pp. 50-53
• E. Jessen, K. Ullmann: The German Research Network: Contributions to technology and market development in the field of data communication since 1984, in Oppelland, HJ: Germany and its future, Eul, Cologne, 2006

Web links

• Literature by and about Eike Jessen in the catalog of the German National Library
• Eike Jessen on the website of the Technical University of Munich
• Telefunken and the Internet: On the death of Eike Jessen

Individual evidence

1. ^ Christian Grimm, Jochem Pattloch: In memory of Eike Jessen. Obituary on the homepage of the German Research Network DFN (accessed on March 19, 2015).
2. ^ [1] Obituaries of the Süddeutsche Zeitung March 21, 2015 (March 21, 2015).
3. ↑ heise.de: Telefunken and Internet: On the death of Eike Jessen , March 24, 2015
4. ↑ https://www.computerwoche.de/hall-of-fame/prof-eike-jessen,17