CLEMENTS, Alan 1948-

PERSONAL: Born Born September 27, 1948, in Warrington, Lancashire, England; son of Frank and Hilda (Webb) Clements; married Susan Mary Northan, June 26, 1971. Education: University of Sussex, B.Sc. (electronics; with honors), 1971; Loughborough University, Ph.D., 1976. Politics: Socialist. Religion: Atheist. Hobbies and other interests: Flying as a private pilot, travel, photography, science fiction.

ADDRESSES: Home—12 Merrington Ave., Middlesbrough TS5 8RH, England. Office—University of Teeside, Borough Rd., Middlesbrough TS1 3BA, England. E-mail—alanclements@ntlworld.com.

CAREER: Department of Electronic Engineering, Loughborough University, research fellow, 1974-76, lecturer, 1976-87, reader in computer science, 1987-92, School of Computing and Mathematics, Motorola Professor, 1992—. Technical Institute of Crete, Greece, visiting professor, 1989-90; Microprocessors and Microsystems, associate editor, 1986—; Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, England, external examiner for computer science degree, 1990-94; South Bank University, London, England, external examiner, 1991-95; International Institute for Computer Studies, Colombo, Sri Lanka, external examiner, 1992-94; University of Massachusetts, Boston, adjunct professor, 1996-97.

MEMBER: British Computer Society, European Commission, Belgium, (committee member, computer language standards, 1982-84), Microprocessors and Microsystems Design, (member, editorial board, 1988—), IEEE Computer Society (publications board member, 1997—; member of ACM [board of governors], 2001—; chair of international design competition, 2001).

AWARDS, HONORS: National teaching fellowship (United Kingdom), 2002; IEEE Computer Society Undergraduate Teacher of the Year Award, 2002.

WRITINGS:

Microcomputer Design and Construction: BuildingYour Own System with the Motorola 6800, Prentice-Hall International (London, England), 1982.

The Principles of Computer Hardware, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 1985, second revised edition, 2000.

Microprocessor Systems Design: 68000 Software, Hardware, and Interfacing, PWS-Kent (Boston, MA), 1987, second revised edition, 1997.

Microprocessor Interfacing and the 68000: Peripherals and Systems, Wiley (Chichester, England), 1989.

(Editor) 68000 Sourcebook, McGraw-Hill (London, England), 1990.

(Editor) Microprocessor Support Chip Sourcebook, McGraw-Hill (London, England), 1991.

(Editor) Analog Interface and the DSP Sourcebook, McGraw-Hill (London, England), 1993.

68000 Family Assemblage Language, PWS Publishing Co. (Boston, MA), 1994.

Author of video script for series Microprocessor Design, 1990.

SIDELIGHTS: Alan Clements's contributions to microprocessor design and systems analysis have been significant, especially because they help computer aficionados understand the Motorola 6800 and 68000 series. His first book, Microcomputer Design and Construction: Building Your Own System with the Motorola 6800, is aimed at computer-building professionals and graduate students. Although written with the Motorola 6800 in mind, the book applies equally well to other microprocessors. Clements's approach in his book is to take on each component of the microprocessor system one by one, and then to analyze combined components built into a system. The book contends with a wide variety of related topics, including input/output techniques, data bus, memories, system clock circuit, software needs, and multiprocessor systems. In his review of Microcomputer Design and Construction for Science Books and Films, Ram S. Khare wrote that "Clements succeeds in . . . explain[ing] how to build a microprocessor system."

In 1985 Clements published The Principles of Computer Hardware, a work aimed at college students studying computer science or electrical engineering. The book focuses on such topics as computer arithmetic, logic elements and Boolean algebra, computer memory, computer communications, and the central processing unit. A reviewer for New Technical Books thought the text might also be useful to "general readers who want to learn how computers operate."

Microprocessor Interfacing and the 68000: Peripherals and Systems, published in 1989, examines the microprocessor, according to a New Technical Books critic, from the standpoint of "peripherals that are connected to it." Topic areas include the modern microcomputer, serial input/output, analog input/output, the real-time clock, the disk drive and its interface, and multiprocessor systems. This book is aimed at students of computer technology or electronic engineers.

Clements told CA: "I see my role as an academic author who takes material produced by researchers and presents it in a form that can be assimilated by my students. My goal is to take topics that are traditionally regarded as difficult by students and explain them clearly. Over the past year or so I have been active in the development of the computer architecture curriculum and have attempted to make it more relevant to computer science generally.

"Because my spelling was—and is—rather poor, my school teachers were rather dismissive of my writing. One English teacher said 'Clements, if you ever use a word longer than the indefinite article, look it up in a dictionary.' When I write I sometimes feel that I am doing my best to prove my teachers wrong.

"The main reason that I write is because I am doing something useful and have an effect on those who read my books. When I was involved in pure research, I received little feedback; I was an expert in a topic that I could discuss with very few people. Once I started writing, I received far more feedback from the professors who adopted my books and from the students who used them. I felt that people liked what I was doing and appreciated my efforts. Writing gave me a sense of achievement."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

New Technical Books, November, 1986, p. 643; March-April, 1990, p. 621.

Science Books and Films, May-June, 1983, p. 266.