Difference between revisions of "Xerox PARC"

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'''Xerox PARC''' was the acronymmed short form of the 'Xerox Palo Alto Research Center'.
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'''Xerox PARC''' was the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (most usually referred to by the acronymmed short form). During its peak period of productivity in the 1970s, building on earlier thinking and work by people such as [[J. C. R. Licklider]], [[Ivan Sutherland]] and [[Douglas Engelbart]], it created essentially the modern computing environment. Among their most consequential and famous creations were:
  
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The [[MAXC]] computers (clones of the [[PDP-10]]; they ran [[TENEX]]) were produced there, along with, most famous and consequentially, the ground-breaking [[Ethernet]] [[local area network]] and the [[Xerox Alto]] personal [[workstation]].
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* the ground-breaking [[Xerox Alto]] personal [[workstation]], from which essentially all modern [[personal computer]]s, including especially their [[graphical user interface]]s, are descended;
  
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* the [[Ethernet]] [[local area network]], which through its descendant, [[DIX Ethernet]], was similarly influential on the now-ubiquitous [[WiFi]] networking technology;
  
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* the [[PARC Universal Packet]] (PUP) [[internetwork]]ing [[protocol suite]]; it had a significant influence on the later [[TCP/IP]] of the [[Internet]];
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* the unification of the above into the network-centric information-handling system, with [[server]]s and workstations (the Alto).
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Hints of those existed before, but PARC's unified implementation of them all (and in a way that made them cheap enough to deploy them widely) was a huge jump forward.
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Although 'personal computers' had a thin but long (if now poorly remembered) history at that point (including the [[LINC]], and [[Augmentation Research Center|ARC]]'s 'workstation' - which did not mean then what it does now), the Alto showed what could be done when you added a [[bit-mapped display]] to which the [[Central Processing Unit|CPU]] had direct access, and deployed a group of them in a network/server environment; having so much computing power available, on an individual basis, that the user could 'light their cigar with computes' radically changed everything. (Of course, the invention of the [[microprocessor]] turbo-charged that.)
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Other notable creations of PARC in that period included:
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* the [[laser printer]]
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* inclusion of [[graphics]] in computer-produced documents, eventually leading to [[PostScript]]
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* [[structured programming]] and [[object-oriented]] [[programming language]]s
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* the idea for the [[laptop]] (in the form of [[Alan Kay]]'s [[Dynabook]])
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* structured [[VLSI]] design, including [[CAD]] tools for it
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* [[semiconductor]] [[laser]]s, used in (among many other places) [[optical disk]]s
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* the [[touch tablet]]
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The [[Maxc]] computers (clones of the [[PDP-10]], which ran [[TENEX]]), were also produced there. PARC also wrote and experimented with the first [[worm]]s ever produced.
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{{semi-stub}}
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==See also==
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==Further reading==
 
==Further reading==
  
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==External links==
 
==External links==
  
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* [https://xeroxalto.computerhistory.org/ Xerox PARC Alto filesystem archive]
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* [https://xeroxparcarchive.computerhistory.org/index.html Xerox PARC Interim File System (IFS) archive]
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** [https://xeroxalto.computerhistory.org/cross_reference.html Cross reference by file name]
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** [https://xeroxparcarchive.computerhistory.org/Xerox_PARC_source_code.html Xerox PARC file system archive] - curated overview
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** [https://computerhistory.org/blog/a-backup-of-historical-proportions/ A Backup of Historical Proportions] - making the Xerox PARC file system archive accessible
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* [https://spectrum.ieee.org/xerox-parc Xerox PARC's Engineers on How They Invented The Future] - excellent [[IEEE]] article (with a few irritating minor errors: "information-processing techniques office" should be [[Information Processing Techniques Office]] - its formal name; "the 1,103 dynamic memory chips used in the MAXC design" - that's the [[Intel 1103]])
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* [https://spectrum.ieee.org/xerox-alto 50 Years Later, We‘re Still Living In The Xerox Alto‘s World] - another IEEE article, which also covers the creation of PARC
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* [https://spectrum.ieee.org/parc Xerox Donates Legendary PARC Research Center]
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[[Category: Research Organizations]]
 
[[Category: Research Organizations]]
 
[[Category: Xerox]]
 
[[Category: Xerox]]
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[[Category: PDP-10 Users]]

Latest revision as of 02:36, 23 November 2024

Xerox PARC was the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (most usually referred to by the acronymmed short form). During its peak period of productivity in the 1970s, building on earlier thinking and work by people such as J. C. R. Licklider, Ivan Sutherland and Douglas Engelbart, it created essentially the modern computing environment. Among their most consequential and famous creations were:

  • the unification of the above into the network-centric information-handling system, with servers and workstations (the Alto).

Hints of those existed before, but PARC's unified implementation of them all (and in a way that made them cheap enough to deploy them widely) was a huge jump forward.

Although 'personal computers' had a thin but long (if now poorly remembered) history at that point (including the LINC, and ARC's 'workstation' - which did not mean then what it does now), the Alto showed what could be done when you added a bit-mapped display to which the CPU had direct access, and deployed a group of them in a network/server environment; having so much computing power available, on an individual basis, that the user could 'light their cigar with computes' radically changed everything. (Of course, the invention of the microprocessor turbo-charged that.)

Other notable creations of PARC in that period included:

The Maxc computers (clones of the PDP-10, which ran TENEX), were also produced there. PARC also wrote and experimented with the first worms ever produced.

Further reading

  • Michael A. Hiltzik, Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age, HarperBusiness, New York, 1999
  • Douglas K. Smith, Robert C. Alexander, Fumbling the Future: How Xerox Invented, Then Ignored, the First Personal Computer, William Morrow, New York, 1988

External links

Retrieved from "https://gunkies.org/w/index.php?title=Xerox_PARC&oldid=35574"