Profile

Before his retirement in 2004, Andrew Allison spent more than 25 years as a highly-regarded computer industry analyst and consultant specializing in strategic product development and marketing issues. Prior to starting his consulting practice in 1977, he spent over ten years with Digital Equipment and ROLM Corporations, and two-and-a-half years as MOS Microprocessor Marketing Manager at Advanced Micro Devices. During four years as a member of the IEEE Computer Society's Microprocessor Standards Committee, he made significant contributions to several standards.

Mr. Allison's four decades of experience in computer technology and marketing has been applied to the development, evaluation and implementation of product and market strategies for a broad range of processor, system and subsystem manufacturers. He has also prepared studies for several leading market research companies and financial institutions, His own study of the evolution and impact of microcomputer-based systems, Managing the Microminicomputer Explosion was published by Electronic Trend Publications in 1983.

His extensive background in computer systems and microprocessors enabled Mr. Allison to foresee the impact of reduced instruction set computer (RISC) technology. His first published study of RISC systems appeared in March 1986, well before their importance was recognized. He also foresaw, in mid-1996, the shift to industry-standard hardware and software platforms in the workstation and mid-range server markets.

In 1988, responding to the need for more broadly distributed analysis and commentary on the radical changes occurring within the industry, Mr. Allison started a newsletter. Inside the New Computer Industry which became must reading for those whose jobs demanded a clear understanding of what was really going on in the computer industry. The world's four largest computer companies and two largest semiconductor manufacturer, among others, valued it enough to have corporate-wide subscriptions.

A native of the United Kingdom who has lived in California since 1968, Mr Allison became a Senior Member of the IEEE in 1980 and a Fellow of the (British) IEE in 1981. He was a founding associate editor of the IEEE Computer Society's micro-processor monthly, MICRO, and founding vice chairman of the IEE's West Coast U.S.A. branch. After becoming a U.S. citizen in 1980, he became involved in local government, was elected to the Los Altos Hills city council in 1982, and served as Mayor in 1984/85. He has lived in Carmel, CA since 1991.