[avmich]

I highly suspect those titans of innovations - in many areas - just happen to be among the first to get to relatively low hanging fruits in a new area... This pattern repeats in many fields.

Not to diminish Amdahl's achievements, of course.

[mike_hearn]

Sure. I mean, I expect to read similar obituaries one day for the computer science giants of today, like Jeff Dean (hopefully not for a very long time!).

Amdahl's bio makes it sound like he was an effective engineer and good at business too, but that his career was somewhat empty of success after he left Amdahl. That should not detract from his earlier achievements. Very few people have an unbroken track record of sustained success across their whole career.