Sophie Wilson
Sophie Wilson giving a presentation on ARM development
Born	Roger Wilson
Residence	Lode, Cambridgeshire[1]
Nationality	British[2]
Alma mater	Cambridge University[2]
Occupation	Chief Architect
Employer	Broadcom, DSL Business Unit
Known for	Work with Acorn Computers, particularly the BBC Micro and on the ARM processor[2]
Website
www.sophie.org.uk

Sophie Wilson (born Roger Wilson in Leeds, England, in 1957) is a British computer scientist. She is known for designing the Acorn Micro-Computer, the first of a long line of computers sold by Acorn Computers Ltd,^[3] as well as the instruction set of the highly successful ARM processor.

Life and career[link]

Wilson was educated at Cambridge University. In 1978, she designed the Acorn Micro-Computer, the first of a long line of computers sold by Acorn Computers Ltd.^[3]

In 1981, Wilson extended the Acorn Atom's BASIC programming language dialect into an improved version for the Acorn Proton, a microcomputer that enabled Acorn to win the contract with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for their ambitious computer education project, whereupon the Proton became the BBC Micro and its BASIC was developed into BBC BASIC. In 1983, she designed the instruction set for one of the first RISC processors, the Acorn RISC Machine (ARM), later to become one of the most successful IP-cores (i.e., a licenced CPU core) of the 1990s and 2000s.

Wilson designed Acorn Replay, the video architecture for Acorn machines. This included the operating system extensions for video access as well as the codecs themselves, optimised to run high frame rate video on ARM CPUs from the ARM 2 onwards.

Wilson was a member of the board of the technology and games company Eidos plc, which bought and created Eidos Interactive, for the years following its flotation in 1990, and was a consultant to ARM Ltd when it was split off from Acorn in 1990.

Sophie Wilson giving a public presentation on ARM development in 2009

Since the demise of Acorn Computers, Wilson has made a small number of public appearances to talk about her time there.^[4]

Wilson is now the Director of IC Design in Broadcom’s Cambridge, U.K. office^[5]. She was the Chief Architect of Broadcom's Firepath processor^[6] . Firepath has its history in Acorn Computers, which, after being renamed to Element 14, was bought by Broadcom in 2000.

She was listed in 2011 in Maximum PC as number 8 in an article entitled The 15 Most Important Women in Tech History.^[7] She was awarded the Fellow Award by the Computer History Museum in California in 2012.^{[8][9][10][11]}

Wilson is transsexual and was born Roger Wilson.^[12][13] In the BBC television drama Micro Men a young Roger Wilson is played by Stefan Butler and Wilson herself makes a cameo appearance as a pub landlady.^[13]

See also[link]

• Acorn Computers
• Steve Furber
• Hermann Hauser
• List of programmers
• List of transgender people

References[link]

External links[link]

• An interview with Sophie Wilson
• Sophie Wilson's home page

Elizabeth Wilson
Elizabeth Wilson, Alan Safier
Born	Elizabeth Welter Wilson (1921-04-04) April 4, 1921 (age 91) Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1953- present

Elizabeth Welter Wilson^[1] (born April 4, 1921) is an American actress. She was elected to the Theatre Hall of Fame in 2007.

Life and career[link]

Wilson was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the daughter of Marie Ethel (née Welter) and Henry Dunning Wilson, who was an insurance agent.^[1] Wilson attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, then studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse. She made her Broadway debut in Picnic in 1953. Her stage credits include Desk Set, The Good Woman of Szechuan, Sticks and Bones, Uncle Vanya, Threepenny Opera, The Importance of Being Earnest, Morning's at Seven, You Can't Take It with You, Ah, Wilderness!, and A Delicate Balance.

Wilson made her screen debut reprising her stage role in the 1955 film adaptation of Picnic. Additional credits include The Goddess, A Child is Waiting, The Birds, The Graduate, Catch-22, The Day of the Dolphin, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, Nine to Five, Grace Quigley, Regarding Henry, The Tunnel of Love, The Addams Family, and Quiz Show. She portrays Franklin Roosevelt's mother, Sara Ann Delano Roosevelt, in Hyde Park On Hudson.

Wilson's television credits include such early anthology series as Kraft Television Theatre, The United States Steel Hour, and Armstrong Circle Theatre. She was a regular on the primetime drama East Side/West Side and sitcom Doc and has appeared in Dark Shadows, Another World, All in the Family, Murder, She Wrote, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

Awards and nominations[link]

Awards

• 1972 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play - Sticks and Bones
• 1980 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance - Morning's at Seven

Nominations

• 1957 BAFTA Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer - Patterns
• 1976 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical - Threepenny Opera
• 1985 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play - Salonika
• 1987 Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Special - Nutcracker: Money, Madness & Murder

References[link]

External links[link]

• Elizabeth Wilson at the Internet Broadway Database
• Elizabeth Wilson at the Internet Movie Database