Gaylord G. (Glenn) Henry

Lead architect of the IBM System/32, IBM System/38 (forerunner of AS/400), and RT/PC (forerunner of Power systems), Henry is also co-founder and President of Centaur Technologies, Inc., and has played an integral role in the development of the computer industry in the U.S. throughout his career. He holds over seventy U.S. patents. He was born in Berkeley, California, and at age fifteen in 1958, as part of the Sputnik Acceleration Program, he entered the University of California, Hayward, which was near his home.

After three years he dropped out of the university and went to work flying helicopters at age nineteen. He left that job and went to work at Shell Development as a lab technician in 1963. The week he arrived, they got a new computer—an IBM 7094. No one there knew how to use it, so Henry was given the responsibility of learning how to program it.

He returned to school at California State University, Hayward, and obtained a B.S. degree in Mathematics in 1966. The following year he received his M.S. degree, also in Mathematics. He began his business career at IBM, where he worked for 21 years until 1988. Henry was the instigator, lead architect and development manager responsible for the IBM System/32, IBM System/38 (forerunner of AS/400), and RT/PC (forerunner of Power systems).

He was centrally involved in the software development and hardware definitions for IBM's early Midrange Series computers. He held managerial roles at IBM, San Jose, CA and IBM, Boca Raton, FL before leading a large team at the home of IBM Midrange Series hardware and software development, IBM, Rochester, NY. In 1985 IBM appointed him an IBM Fellow.

He went to work for Dell in 1988, becoming Dell's Senior Vice President in charge of products in 1993. While working there, Henry discovered that it was not possible to buy computer processors for less than $160 wholesale, thereby constraining the ultimate retail price of the resulting computer. In 1994 he left Dell and founded Centaur Technologies, Inc., where he began working on a new Intel compatible design. Funding for this new processor was provided by IDT. His first processor came to market in 1997, and the company was subsequently taken over by VIA Technologies in 1999.