John Wharton is known as the architect of the Intel 8051. For many years he was a principal contributor to Microprocessor Report offering insightful and sometimes humorous views on computers and computer architecture. He was a primary organizer for the annual iconic Asilomar Microprocessor Workshop, an influential invitational conference which brought designers and architects from companies and academia together for informal technical discussions. He also spent several years as co-host and co-organizer of the Stanford EE380 Computer Systems Colloquium. He was a friend.