Simon Knowles

Simon Knowles is a silicon engineer, entrepreneur and graduate of Churchill College, Cambridge.  His work is in designing processors, most recently for supercomputing and artificial intelligence (AI). Simon has co-founded three silicon companies in England – you are probably benefiting from some of his designs as his processors revolutionised the delivery of broadband internet to homes over existing copper telephone lines.  In 2014, he co-founded Graphcore, his current company, which produces AI supercomputers based on its Colossus intelligence processor.

In 2024, Simon was recognised for his invaluable contribution to science and elected to become a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). Becoming a Fellow represents the pinnacle of scientific achievement and  is a prestigious honour held by only 1,800 of the world's leading scientists.

When asked to reflect on his time at Manwood’s, Simon told us, “There's always a revolution starting in some technology.  I was at school when the nascent revolution was the microprocessor – a computer on a silicon chip.  Malcolm Main (maths) started a programming club, Lyndon Johns (physics) started an electronics club, I joined both and we all learned together.  Later in life, I founded chip companies and designed microprocessors for all sorts of things, including the new revolution of AI. Those two fine teachers thought about what we youngsters would need for the future, beyond their formal teaching in maths and physics.  They helped us to join a revolution.”