View source for Computer science eponyms

Computer science needs more eponyms, in the vein of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordenkainen#Spells Mordenkainen]. Collect them all, and impress your friends! I might make a project one day of [[book ideas|summarizing these entries]].

Explicitly ''not included'' in this list are: general logic (Peano and Presburger arithmetic, Herbrandization), mathematical entities not primarily associated with computer science (Markov's inequality, Chapman-Kolmogorov equation, Young tableaux), physical theories to which computer science is merely applied (Navier-Stokes equations, Taylor-Couette flow), nor statistical entities not primarily associated with computer science (Ziph's Law, Pareto efficiency). Explicitly ''included'' are: terms from computer engineering (Mead-Conway rules, Ling adders).

'''UPDATE''' the threshold for inclusion is now: '''De Morgan's Laws'''. If you're not at least as computer sciency as '''De Morgan's Laws''', you ain't gettin' in. [[User:Dank|Dank]] 12:25, 3 October 2011 (CDT)


* '''Aanderaa–Rosenberg Conjecture''' suggests that non-trivial monotonicity properties of undirected graphs can only be solved by ''Ω(N<sup>2</sup>)'' algorithms on ''N'' vertices (these are all evasive decision trees on all possible edges)
* '''Adam7 Algorithm''' is a 2D, 7-pass interlacing scheme optionally used by PNG due to Adam Costello
* the '''Adler-32''' checksum trades reliability for speed relative to CRCs of the same length, and is included in Mark Adler's zlib
* '''Adleman's Theorem''' states that P/poly contains all problems solvable in randomized polynomial time
* '''Adelson-Velskii-Landis Trees''' are self-height-balancing binary search trees, optimizing for lookup over modification viz. red-black trees
* '''Aho-Corasick Algorithm''' extends the Knuth-Morris-Pratt automaton to match multiple strings in one pass of a text
* '''Akra-Bazzi Method''' generalizes the "master method" of Bentley, Haken, and Saxe for subproblems of significantly different size
* Amdahl's Law
* Andersen's Algorithm
* Angluin's algorithm
* '''Arikan's PAC Codes''' aka polarization-adjusted convolutional [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_code_(coding_theory) polar coding] outperform CRC-aided and purely convolutional polar codes, approaching the theoretical channel capacity for short blocklengths.
* '''Armstrong's axioms''' are a set of inference rules which generate all functional dependencies of a relational database. Similarly, an '''Armstrong relation''' satisfies all the functional dependencies in the closure F<sup>+</sup> (and only those dependencies).

* Backus-Naur Form
* Bajard-Kla-Muller algorithm
* Ball-Larus Heuristics
* the '''Banerjee test''' can demonstrate the absence of [[Compiler_Design|control flow dependencies]] in certain types of loops
* Barendregt convention
* Barendregt-Geuvers-Klop Conjecture
* Barnes-Hut simulation
* the '''Barton-Nackman trick''' is an idiom in C++ effecting restricted template expansion
* Baskett, Chandy, Muntz and Palacios network
* Batcher's Odd-Even Merge
* '''Bayer Filter''' mosaics arrange RGB color filters on a square array of photosensors, and are used in a majority of single-chip image sensors. It uses twice as many green sensors as red or blue, to mimic the physiology of the human eye
* '''Bélády's algorithm''' is the theoretically best cache-replacement algorithm, one which discards information that will not be needed until the furthest time into the future (this is not usually knowable)
* '''Bélády's anomaly''' is the phenomenon in which increasing the number of page frames results in an ''increase'' in the number of page faults for certain memory access patterns, especially when using FIFO page replacement
* Bell-La Padula model
* the '''Bellman Equation''' specifies for a problem the necessary condition for optimality of dynamic programming
* Bellman-Ford Algorithm
* Beneš network
* Bentley-Ottman Algorithm
* Berlekamp-Massey Algorithm
* Berman–Hartmanis conjecture
* Bernstein chaining
* Bernstein conditions
* Biba Integrity Model
* Blinn-Phong shading
* Blom's Scheme
* Bloom filter
* Bluestein's FFT
* Blum's axioms
* Blum's Speedup Theorem
* Blum-Blum-Shub random number generator
* Boehm-Demers-Weiser garbage collector
* the '''Boolean''' data type takes on values of true or false, as do variables in George Boole's algebra
* Booth's Algorithm
* Borůvka's Algorithm
* Bowyer-Watson Algorithm
* Boyer-Moore Algorithm
* the <b>Brassard-Høyer-Tapp algorithm</b> solves the collision problem on a quantum computer in O(n<sup>⅓</sup>) queries
* Bremermann's Limit
* '''Brent's Adder''' is logn + O(log1/2n) depth and O(nlg n) size
* '''Brent's Algorithm''' detects cycles using two pointers, and finds the length of the cycle directly
* '''Brent's Method''' is a hybrid root-finding algorithm combining bisection, the secant method, and inverse quadratic interpolation
* '''Brent's Theorem''' aka '''Brent's Law''' states that p < N processors can simulate N in T<sub>p</sub> ≤ T<sub>N</sub> + (T<sub>1</sub> - T<sub>N</sub>)/p
* Bresenham's Algorithm
* Brewer's Theorem
* Brodal Queue
* Broder's Method
* Bron-Kerbosch Algorithm
* Brooks-Iyengar Algorithm
* Buchberger Algorithm
* Burrows-Wheeler Transform
* Buzen's Algorithm

* Callahan-Koblenz algorithm
* Cannon's Algorithm
* Cantor-Zassenhaus Algorithm
* Carmack's Reverse
* Catmull-Clark subdivision surfaces
* Chaff Algorithm
* Chaitin's algorithm
* Chaitin's Constant
* Chaitin-Briggs algorithm
* Chaitin–Kolmogorov random numbers
* Chakravala's Algorithm
* '''Chan's Algorithm''' computes the optimal h-point convex hull of n 2- or 3-dimensional points in O(nlgh)
* Chandy-Lamport Algorithm
* the '''Chang-Roberts Algorithm''' elects leaders for distributed systems.
* '''Chen's Algorithm''' is an exact quantum algorithm for testing 2-junta
* '''Chen's Algorithm''' is a single-writer, multiple-reader, wait-free lock using Compare-and-Swap
* the '''Chen-Teboulle Algorithm''' solves the proximal point algorithm efficiently for certain functions
* Cheney's Algorithm
* Chew's Second Algorithm
* Chien search
* '''Cholesky decomposition''' expands Hermitian positive-definite matrices into products of a lower triangular matrix and its conjugate transpose. solved using the Cholesky–Crout and Cholesky–Banachiewicz algorithms.
* Chomsky Hierarchy
* Chomsky Normal Form
* Chomsky-Schützenberger theorem
* Christofides Algorithm
* Church encoding
* Church-Rosser Theorem
* Church-Turing Thesis
* the '''[https://clifford.at/cliffords-device.html Clifford Device]''' exploits <tt>if(0)</tt> to abstract block control via macros (note that e. g. [https://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/n3355.htm N3355] calls this "Claire's Device" following a presumed transition, but Claire still seems to call it Clifford).
* Clos network
* Cobham Axioms
* Cobham's thesis
* Cocke-Younger-Kasami Algorithm
* Cohen-Sutherland algorithm
* '''Coffman conditions''' enumerate the four conditions necessary and sufficient for deadlock within a system (mutual exclusion, hold-and-wait, a lack of preemption, and circular wait)
* Commentz-Walter Algorithm
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_law Conway's Law]
* Cook reduction
* the '''Cook-Levin Theorem''' (sometimes just '''Cook Theorem''') proves that the Boolean satisfiability problem is NP-complete.
* the '''Cooley-Tukey Algorithm''' is the workhorse algorithm for Fast Fourier Transforms.
* the '''Coppersmith-Winograd Algorithm''' multiplied matrices in the least time complexity from 1990-2010, and used the "laser method" employed by all improvements since.
* Craig, Landin and Hagersten lock
* Cranfield method
* (preconditioned) Crank–Nicolson Algorithm
* Crusader’s Convergence Algorithm
* Curry-Howard correspondence

* Dadda Multiplier
* Damerau-Levenshtein distance
* Damm Algorithm
* Davis-Putnam Algorithm
* Davis-Putnam-Logemann-Loveland Algorithm
* De Bruijn presentation
* De Bruijn string
* Dekker's Algorithm
* Delaunay's Triangulation
* Dennard Scaling
* Deutsch gate
* Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange
* Dijkstra's Algorithm
* Dinic's Algorithm
* '''DiVincenzo's criteria''' specify conditions necessary for a quantum computer
* Dolev's Algorithm
* Doo-Sabin subdivision surface
* Duff's Device
* Dyck Language

* Earle latch
* Earley Parser
* '''Edholm's law''' predicts doubling of bandwidth every 18 months across wireless, nomadic, and wired networks (and is getting some rather heavy lift from Moore's Law IMHO)
* '''Edmonds's matching algorithm''' constructs maximum matchings on graphs in O(|E||V|²)
* Edmonds-Karp Algorithm
* ElGamal encryption
* ElGamal signatures
* van Emde Boas trees
* Sieve of Eratosthenes
* the '''Eytzinger layout''' stores binary trees in an array in a cache-friendly manner
* Euclid's Algorithm

* '''Fagin's Theorem''' states that the set of all properties expressible in existential second-order logic is precisely the complexity class NP
* '''Falk diagrams''' graph various performance counters against time (typically expressed in cycles)
* Faugère F5 algorithm
* '''Fenwick trees''' support efficient update of elements and calculate prefix sums in a table of numbers
* Fiat-Shamir Heuristic
* Fibonacci Heap
* Fisher-Yates shuffle
* Flajolet-Martin algorithm
* Fletcher's Checksum 
* Floyd's Algorithm
* Floyd-Steinberg dithering
* Flynn Taxonomy
* Ford-Fulkerson Algorithm
* Fortune's Algorithm
* Fox's Algorithm
* Fredkin gate
* Friedberg-Muchnik Theorem
* Fruchterman-Reingold heuristic
* '''Fürer's algorithm''' multiplies two ''n''-digit numbers in ''O(nlgn*2<sup>O(lg*n)</sup>)''

* Gabbay's separation theorem
* Gabow's Algorithm
* Gal's Accurate Tables
* Gale-Church Algorithm
* Gale-Shapley algorithm
* Gilbert-Johnson-Keerthi Algorithm
* Girard's Paradox
* Girvan-Newman Algorithm
* Givens rotation
* Glushkov Automata
* Goldreich-Goldwasser-Halevi scheme
* The weighted '''Gomory-Hu Tree''' of an undirected graph with capacities G represents the minimum s-t cuts for all s-t pairs in G, and is computable via |V|-1 maximum flow problems.
* Gordon–Newell theorem
* Gosper's Hack
* Gosper's Hypergeometric Algorithm
* Gosper's Loop Detection Algorithm
* Gouraud shading
* The '''Graham Scan''' solves for the convex hull of a set of points in ''O(NlgN)''.
* The '''Graham-Andrew Algorithm''' modifies the Graham Scan to solve for convex hulls in ''O(N)'' best case.
* Graham-Denning Model
* Gram–Schmidt process
* Gray codes
* Greibach Normal Form
* Grover's Algorithm
* Grzegorczyk hierarchy
* Guruswami-Sudan Algorithm
* Gustafson's Law
* '''Gutmann's Method''' is a 35-phase recipe for destroying data on ferromagnetic drives.
* Guttman-Rosler transform

* Hamiltonian path problem
* Hamming code
* Hamming distance
* '''Heckel's algorithm''' isolates changes between files, and is the basis for <tt>diff</tt> [https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/359460.359467 CACM 1978]
* Hennessy-Milner Logic
* Herlihy's wait-free hierarchy
* Hindley-Milner type system
* Hirschberg's Algorithm
* Hoare logic
* Holevo's Theorem
* Holland's schema theorem
* Hong-Kung bound
* Hopcroft-Karp Algorithm
* Hopfield net
* Horn clauses
* Hough transform
* Householder transformation
* Huet's Zipper
* Huffman coding
* Hunt-McIlroy Algorithm

* Iliffe vector
* Immerman–Szelepcsényi theorem

* Jackson network
* Jackson's theorem
* Jaro-Winkler distance
* Jefferson's Time Warp
* Jelinek-Mercer smoothing
* Jensen's Device
* Johnson's Algorithm
* the '''Jonker-Volgenant Algorithm''' improves '''Kuhn's Algorithm''' to solve the assignment problem in O(n³), Jonker-Volgenant 1987

* Kabsch Algorithm
* Kadane's Algorithm
* Kahan Summation Algorithm
* '''Kahn's Algorithm''' topologically sorts a graph in O(|V| + |E|), Kahn 1962
* Kannan's Theorem
* '''Karatsuba's Algorithm''' multiplies two ''n''-digit numbers using ''n<sup>log<sub>2</sub>3</sup>'' single-digit mults
* Karger's Algorithm
* '''Karn's algorithm''' extracts accurate [[TCP]] RTT measures, Karn-Partridge 1987
* Karmarkar's algorithm
* Karnaugh map
* Karp reduction
* Karp-Flatt metric
* Karp-Lipton Theorem
* Kamada-Kawai algorithm
* Kernighan-Lin algorithm
* Kirkpatrick-Seidel Algorithm
* Kleene Closure
* Kleene Plus
* Kleene Star
* Kleene–Rosser Paradox
* Kneser-Ney smoothing
* Knuth Shuffle
* Knuth-Morris-Pratt Algorithm
* Koenig Lookup
* Kohonen Algorithm
* Kohonen network
* Kolmogorov complexity
* Koomey's Law
* Kosaraju's Algorithm
* '''Krapchenko's Adder''' is an improvement over Brent's Adder, linear (3n + 6*2m, m=ceil(lg n)) in size and logn + O(log1/2n) depth (m + 7(2m)1/2+16, m = ceil(lg n)).
* Kruskal's Algorithm
* '''Kryder's Law''' asserted that areal density doubles every thirteen months (this has not been true for some time). Also known as the ''Kryder rate''.
* '''Kuhn's Algorithm''' (also known as '''Kuhn-Munkres''') solves the assignment problem in polynomial time, Kuhn 1955
* Kung-Leiserson systolic array
* Kuroda Normal Form

* Ladner's Theorem
* Lamport's Bakery Algorithm
* Lamport's Logical Clock
* Lamport's Hash
* Lamport timestamps
* Lee-Seung algorithm
* Lehmer random number generator
* Lehmer's GCD Algorithm
* Lempel-Ziv-Welch compression
* Levenshtein automaton
* Levenshtein distance
* '''Levialdi's transform''' progressively and deterministically degrades a bitmap
* Levin reduction
* Liang-Barsky algorithm
* Lin-Kernighan Heuristic
* Linde-Buzo-Gray algorithm
* Ling adders
* Liskov's Substitution Principle
* Lloyd's algorithm
* Loop subdivision surfaces
* '''Loss-DiVincenzo machines''' are quantum computers based off electron spin as confined to quantum dots
* Luby's algorithm
* Luhn Algorithm
* Luleå Algorithm

* Maekawa's Algorithm
* Mahaney's Theorem
* Manning algorithm
* Margolus gate
* Marzullo algorithm
* McFarling-style branch predictor
* Mead-Conway Rules
* Mealy machine
* Mellor-Crummey and Scott lock
* Merkle–Damgård construction
* The '''Metropolis-Hastings algorithm''' for MCMC obtains samples from a probability distribution that is [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis%E2%80%93Hastings_algorithm difficult to directly sample]
* Miller-Rabin Primality Test
* Minsky-Fenichel-Yochelson Algorithm
* Montgomery reduction
* Moore machine
* Moore's Law
* Morgensen-Scott encoding
* Möller-Trumbore algorithm

* Nagle's algorithm
* Nassi-Shneiderman diagram
* Needham-Schroeder Protocol
* Needleman-Wunsch Algorithm
* Neuman-Stubblebine Protocol
* '''von Neumann architecture''' aka stored-program architecture keeps instructions in the same memory as data (as opposed to Harvard architecture, which keeps the two distinct). Popularized by von Neumann, but largely based on Eckert and Mauchly's work on the ENIAC.
* Nevill-Manning algorithm
* Nick's Class
* '''Nielsen's law''' predicts slower growth for home bandwidth than computing power, suggesting that user experience will remain bandwidth-bound
* '''Nielsen's usability heuristics''' are ten (rather debatable) guidelines forming a usability heuristic for interface design
* Nisan's Generator

* '''Ogden's lemma''' extends the pumping lemma to context-free languages
* '''Otsu's Method''' is used to perform automatic image thresholding
* '''Ousterhout's dichotomy/fallacy''' is a taxonomy of ''systems'' vs ''scripting'' languages
* Otway-Rees Protocol

* '''Paeth-Tanaka Algorithm''' rotates images via a method of three shears
* '''Paeth Filter''' performs 2D image compression in PNG
* PageRank Algorithm
* Peterson's Algorithm
* Petri nets
* Petrick's method
* Phong shading
* Plotkin's Sticky Bit
* Pollaczek–Khinchine formula
* Pollard's Kangaroo Algorithm
* '''Pollard's ρ Algorithm''' aka '''Pollard's rho Algorithm''' factors integers in running time expected to be proportional to the square root of the smallest prime factor of the number being factored
* Popek-Goldberg virtualization requirements
* Post's correspondence problem
* <b>Post's Lattice</b> is the lattice of all clones on {0,1}, ordered by inclusion. It is used to prove sets of connectives to be functionally complete (e.g. NAND and NOR both generate functionally complete Boolean algebras).
* Postel's Law
* Prim's Algorithm
* '''Proebsting's Law''' claims that compiler technology doubles computing power [http://proebsting.cs.arizona.edu/law.html every 18 years]
* Prüfer Coding
* Prüfer Sequence

* Quines
* Quine-McLuskey algorithm

* Rabin Automata
* Rabin's Information Dispersal Algorithm
* Rabin-Karp Algorithm
* Rader-Brenner Algorithm
* Radovic-Hagersten lock
* the '''Ramer-Douglas-Peucker algorithm''' decimates a series of line segments to a similar series of fewer line segments (1973)
* Raymond's Algorithm
* Reed-Muller code
* Reed-Solomon correction code
* Reingold's logspace Algorithm
* Ricart-Agrawala Algorithm
* Rice's Theorem
* Rice-Shapiro Theorem
* Risch Algorithm
* Rivest-Shamir-Adleman Algorithm
* '''Rocchio's Algorithm''' classifies information relevance using nearest centroids
* Ruppert's Algorithm

* '''Sattolo's Algorithm''' generates a 1-cyclic derangement of an array (a permutation such that every element ends up in a new position)
* Savitch's Theorem
* Schensted Algorithm
* Schlick's approximation
* The '''Schönhage–Strassen algorithm''' multiplies two ''n''-digit numbers in ''O(nlgnlglgn)'' bit complexity using FFTs
* Schoof's Algorithm
* Schreier-Sims Algorithm
* Schwartzian transform
* Sethi-Ullman Algorithm
* Shamir's Secret Sharing Scheme
* Shamos-Hoey Algorithm
* '''Shar's Algortihm''' is a variation on the uniform binary search of Knuth.
* Shor's Algorithm
* Sipser–Lautemann theorem
* '''Smith's Algorithm''' hashes the program counter to n bimodal (saturating) k-bit counters for dynamic branch prediction (1981)
* Smith-Waterman algorithm
* Solomonoff-Levin distribution
* Steensgaard's Algorithm
* Stehlé-Zimmermann algorithm
* '''Steiner tree problems''' are a class of combinatorial optimization problems involving determining the optimal interconnect of a graph under some objective function.
* Steinhaus-Johnson-Trotter algorithm
* Strassen's Algorithm
* Suurballe's Algorithm
* Sweeney-Robertson-Tocher division algorithm

* Tarjan's Algorithm
* Tarjan's Dynamic Tree
* Tarjan's Least Common Ancestors Algorithm
* The nondeterministic '''Tarski–Kuratowski algorithm''' produces an upper bound for the complexity of a given formula in the arithmetical hierarchy and analytical hierarchy.
* Thompson Automata
* Timsort
* Toda's theorem
* Todd–Coxeter algorithm
* the '''Toffoli gate''' aka CCNOT is a 3-to-3 universal reversible gate (all other reversible gates can be constructed from it). there is no smaller universal set of reversible gates (the only reversible gates in 1 or 2 inputs are identity, NOT, and CNOT).
* Tomasulo's AlgorithmRemember
* Tonelli-Shanks Algorithm
* The '''Toom-Cook Algorithm''' multiplies two ''n''-digit numbers using ''n<sup>log(5)/log(3)</sup>'' single-digit mults
* Tupper's self-referential formula
* Turing Degree
* ''Turing Machines'' were used to prove the undecidability of the Entscheidungsproblem in 1936, and have persisted as a rather less elegant model of computation than Church's λ-calculus.
* the '''Turing Test''', originally the "imitation game", was proposed by Turing as a means of evaluating conversational artificial intelligence via questions-and-answers on a text channel. Its use as a diagnostic is debatable at best.

* Ukkonen's Algorithm

* Valiant-Vazirani Theorem
* Van Jacobson Channels
* Van Wijngaarden Grammars
* Verhoeff Algorithm
* Viola-Jones face detection
* Viterbi algorithm
* Volder's algorithm

* Wagner-Fischer Algorithm
* Wallace Multiplier
* Wallace tree
* Warnsdorff's Algorithm
* '''Welford's Algorithm''' is a stable online algorithm for computing mean and estimated variance
* The '''Williams State Machine''' is a common [https://vt100.net/emu/dec_ansi_parser parsing automaton] for DEC virtual terminal input
* Winograd's Algorithm
* Witten-Bell smoothing
* Wu's Line Algorithm
* Wu-Manber Algorithm
* Wyllie's List Ranking

* Yao's Principle
* '''Yeh's Algorithm''' is a two-level adaptive training algorithm designed by Yeh and Patt in 1991. A branch history register is used to maintain branch behavior for a specific pattern of branch history, and 4-bit counters are used for each BTB set.

* Zhu-Takaoka Algorithm
* Zimmermann-Sassaman key-signing protocol
* Zobrist hashing