Mike Cowlishaw

Michael Frederic Cowlishaw is a well-known expert in computer science. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and has worked as a visiting professor at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Warwick.

Cowlishaw retired as an IBM Fellow, a special award for top researchers at IBM. He was also honored as a Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology and the British Computer Society. His work has helped shape modern computing.

He began his education at Monkton Combe School and later studied at the University of Birmingham. His background has made him a respected figure in technology and engineering.

Career at IBM

Mike Cowlishaw started working at IBM in 1974 as an electronic engineer. He later became famous as a programmer and writer. He designed and created the Rexx programming language in 1984 and helped develop many important tools and technologies at IBM.

He also helped create rules for computing by working with groups like ISO, BSI, ANSI, IETF, W3C, ECMA, and IEEE. Mike retired from IBM in March 2010.

Decimal arithmetic

Mike Cowlishaw worked on ways to help computers handle decimal numbers better. He suggested changes to Java for handling large decimal numbers, which were added in Java 5.0. In 2002, he created a new method for storing decimal numbers called densely packed decimal encoding. His ideas were used in many software systems and processors, including IBM’s POWER6 and System z10.

Other activities

Mike Cowlishaw has done many interesting things besides his work in computing. He made a tool to copy old computers called the Acorn System 1 and learned a lot about them. He likes exploring caves in the UK, New England, Spain, and Mexico. Mike is a lifelong member of the National Speleological Society. He has written about batteries and caving ropes and made special lights for caving with LED technology. Today, he works on programming projects called MapGazer and PanGazer.

Publications (primary author)

Mike Cowlishaw has written many books and articles about computer languages and systems. He is known for books about the NetRexx and REXX languages, which help programmers write better code. He has also shared important ideas about decimal floating-point numbers and computer arithmetic at big computer science meetings. His work has been shared in computer journals and conferences for many years.