A Conversation with Kurt Akeley and Pat Hanrahan

Abstract

Interviewing either Kurt Akeley or Pat Hanrahan for this month’s special report on GPUs would have been a great opportunity, so needless to say we were delighted when both of these graphics-programming veterans agreed to participate. Akeley was part of the founding Silicon Graphics team in 1982 and worked there for almost 20 years, during which he led the development of several high-end graphics systems, including GTX, VGX, and RealityEngine. He’s also known for his pioneering work on OpenGL, the industry-standard programming interface for high-performance graphics hardware. Akeley is now a principal researcher at Microsoft Research Silicon Valley, where he works on cutting-edge projects in graphics system architecture, high-performance computing, and display design.