The ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Architecture (SIGARCH) has presented its 2010 Maurice Wilkes Award to Andreas Moshovos of the University of Toronto for his contributions to the development of memory-dependence prediction. This technique, used by high-performance microprocessors that execute memory-access operations, provides many applications in boosting memory-system performance and reducing processor-design complexity.

Moshovos leads the University of Toronto’s AENAO research group, which is developing performance- and power-related technologies for single- and multi-core processors. His contributions to memory-dependence prediction represent a novel solution to the decades-old problem of memory aliasing in which a data location in memory can be accessed through different symbolic names in the program. As a result, aliasing makes it particularly difficult to understand, analyze and optimize programs.

The Maurice Wilkes Award is given annually for an outstanding contribution to computer architecture made by an individual in a computer-related profession for 20 years or less. It is named in honor of Maurice Wilkes, a recipient of the ACM A.M. Turing Award in 1967, who is best known as the builder and designer of the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC), the first computer with an internally stored program.