Information

Membership Number: FCA3537

Membership Type: Fellowship

Division: Engineering and Applied Sciences

Corresponding Email: ******furber@manchester.ac.uk

Homepage(s): https://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/steve.furber/ 

Professor Steve Furber is one of the most distinguished figures in modern computer engineering. He is widely recognized as one of the principal designers of the BBC Microcomputer and the ARM 32-bit RISC microprocessor, work that helped shape the development of modern embedded computing on a global scale. More than 300 billion ARM-powered chips have since been manufactured, powering much of the world’s mobile and embedded computing.

At the University of Manchester, he later developed a second major line of research in asynchronous and low-power systems, advanced processor design, and neural systems engineering. This work led in turn to the SpiNNaker project, which delivered a computer incorporating one million ARM processors optimized for brain-modelling applications. His career has therefore linked foundational advances in microprocessor architecture with some of the most ambitious later developments in neuromorphic and brain-inspired computing. He is Professor Emeritus of Computer Engineering in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Manchester, having retired from the University at the end of September 2023.

Present and Previous Positions

Professor Emeritus of Computer Engineering, Department of Computer Science, University of Manchester.

ICL Professor of Computer Engineering, University of Manchester (1990–2023).

Head, Department of Computer Science, Victoria University of Manchester (2001–2004).

Hardware Designer, Design Manager, and Head of Advanced R&D, Acorn Computers Limited (1981–1990).

Rolls-Royce Research Fellow, Emmanuel College, Cambridge (1978–1981).

Founder of the Amulet research group and a leading figure in the development of advanced processor technologies research at Manchester.

Non-executive Director, Mindtrace Ltd. (2018–2022).

Non-executive Director, Silistix Ltd. (2004–2006).

Non-executive Director, Transitive Corporation (2001–2004). 

Fields of Scholarship and Research Interests

Computer Engineering; Microprocessor Architecture; Asynchronous and Low-Power Systems; Neuromorphic Computing; Brain-Inspired Computing; Neural Systems Engineering

Professor Furber’s scholarship spans several of the most consequential areas of modern computer engineering. His early work in microprocessor design helped establish a new trajectory for efficient processor architecture, especially through the ARM design tradition, whose importance has only grown with the rise of mobile, embedded, and energy-efficient computing.

At Manchester, his research broadened into asynchronous systems, low-power digital design, many-core architectures, and biologically inspired approaches to computation. A central focus of his later work has been the development of SpiNNaker, a massively parallel computing platform designed to support real-time simulation of very large spiking neural networks. Through this work, he became a leading figure in bringing computer architecture, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence into closer and more productive relation.

His research is marked throughout by a rare combination of architectural originality, engineering practicality, and long-term scientific vision. The arc of his work connects core advances in processor design with some of the most ambitious later efforts in neuromorphic and brain-inspired computing. 

Honors, Awards and Other Membership

Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS).

Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng).

Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society (BCS).

Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (FIET).

Fellow of the IEEE.

Member of Academia Europaea.

Chartered Engineer.

Recipient of the Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal (2003).

Holder of a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award (2004–2009).

Recipient of the IET Faraday Medal (2007).

Appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to computer science (2008).

Millennium Technology Prize Laureate (2010).

Fellow of the Computer History Museum (2012).

Recipient of an Honorary Doctor of Science (DSc), University of Edinburgh (2010).

Recipient of an Honorary Doctor of Science (DSc), Anglia Ruskin University (2012).

Recipient of an Honorary Doctor of Science (DSc), Queen’s University Belfast (2015).

Recipient of an Honorary Doctor of Science (DSc), University of Oxford (2023).

Recipient of the IEEE Computer Society Computer Pioneer Award (2013).

Recipient, with Sophie Wilson, of the Economist Innovations Award for Telecommunications and Computing (2013).

Included in the Science Council list of 100 leading UK practising scientists (2014).

Recipient of the BCS Lovelace Medal (2014).

Recipient, with Sophie Wilson, of the Royal Society Mullard Award (2016).

Recipient, with Sophie Wilson, David Patterson, and John Hennessy, of the Charles Stark Draper Prize (2022).

Recipient, with Sophie Wilson, of the IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award (2024).

Selected Publications

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=jLnsiBEAAAAJ&hl=en 

Furber, S. B., and A. R. Wilson. “The Acorn RISC Machine — an architectural view.” IEE Journal of Electronics and Power 33, no. 6 (1987).

Thomas, A. R. P., and S. B. Furber. “ARM3 — A Study in Design for Compatibility.” Microprocessors and Microsystems 14, no. 6 (1990).

Woods, J. V., P. Day, S. B. Furber, J. D. Garside, N. C. Paver, and S. Temple. “AMULET1: An Asynchronous Microprocessor.” IEEE Transactions on Computers 46, no. 4 (1997).

Furber, Steve. ARM System-on-Chip Architecture. Harlow: Addison-Wesley, 2000.

Furber, Steve B., Francesco Galluppi, Steve Temple, and Luis A. Plana. “The SpiNNaker Project.” Proceedings of the IEEE 102, no. 5 (2014): 652–665.

Furber, Steve. “Large-scale Neuromorphic Computing Systems.” Journal of Neural Engineering 13, no. 5 (2016).

Furber, Steve. “Brain-inspired computing.” IET Computers & Digital Techniques 10, no. 6 (2016): 299–305.

Furber, Steve. “Microprocessors: the engines of the digital age.” Proceedings of the Royal Society A 473 (2017).

Furber, Steve. “Digital neuromorphic technology: current and future prospects.” National Science Review 11, no. 5 (2024). 

Other Information

https://royalsociety.org/people/stephen-furber-11472/ 

https://www.nae.edu/266278/Stephen-Steve-B-Furber 

SBF CV.pdf