News
RapidMind Names Dr. Paul Terry to Board of Directors
Renowned HPC expert brings in-depth industry knowledge, leadership, and market experience to leading multi-core technology developer
Waterloo, Ontario - August 27, 2007 - RapidMind Inc., developers of the award-winning RapidMind Platform, today announced the appointment of Dr. Paul Terry to its board of directors. Dr. Terry’s directorship begins immediately.
With the appointment of Dr. Terry, the company gains additional high-performance computing (HPC) expertise, broad product life-cycle management (PLM) knowledge, and marketing experience. Instrumental in the successful acquisition of OctigaBay Systems by supercomputer manufacturer, Cray Inc., where he served as the post-acquisition Chief Technology Officer of Cray Canada, Inc., Dr. Terry also brings strong fiscal management and leadership abilities to RapidMind.
Dr. Terry will work collaboratively with RapidMind’s existing board to both enhance the company’s PLM strategies and assist in efforts to capitalize on its position as the global leader in multi-core development technologies.
“Dr. Terry brings an unrivaled depth of technology, fiscal, and leadership experience to the table,” said Ray DePaul, president and CEO of RapidMind. “His appointment complements an already experienced board and will ensure that RapidMind continues to be the global market leader in the multi-core processing market. We are pleased that an expert of Dr. Terry’s caliber has joined the RapidMind team.”
Multi-core processing is becoming essential throughout the software industry, as applications can no longer count on increased processor clock speeds to improve performance. The majority of software applications are based on single-threaded architecture, and therefore gain no linear performance improvements when run on multi-core systems. With increasing numbers of cores being added to processors, applications are lagging behind hardware innovations; the software must evolve in order to take advantage of the additional processing power that multi-core technology offers.
“Multi-core is quite possibly the greatest challenge that the software industry has ever faced,” says Dr. Terry. “With the quickening pace of multi-core processors, software engineers simply cannot keep up by reprogramming and are striving for a way to program for an ever-increasing number of cores without having to spend endless months or even years re-engineering their applications.”
RapidMind’s flagship technology, the RapidMind Platform, enables software developers to quickly and easily create higher-performing, multi-core-enabled applications that can harness the powerful processing speed of multi-core systems. The RapidMind Platform automates the process of migrating from single core to multi-core-ready applications and opens the door to businesses for the efficient use of multi-core processors.
“Multi-core is happening,” emphasizes Dr. Terry. “If you don’t take advantage of it, it’s like driving a car with only half the cylinders. The RapidMind Platform puts developers on the multi-core track; it’s the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for companies who write software. RapidMind’s technology is truly essential to the software industry.”
Recognized as one of North America’s leading engineering innovators, Dr. Terry holds a PhD in Electronics and Electrical engineering from the University of Liverpool, and was honored as one of the United Kingdom’s youngest lecturers at his alma mater. He also holds an MBA from Cranfield University, and a degree in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), the leading international organization for marketing and business development.
Prior to his appointment at RapidMind, Dr. Terry was the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Abatis Systems, a leader in IP networking, and was the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer for Cray Canada, Inc., formerly known as OctigaBay Systems. In addition, he held various strategic positions at Newbridge Networks, a developer of data and voice networking products.
Dr. Terry serves as a member of the Technical Advisory Group for Panorama Capital and as Secretary and Treasurer of British Columbia’s Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, a leading non-profit health research organization.