Difference between revisions of "Ken Thompson"
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| − | [[Image:KenDMR.jpg|400px|thumb|right|Ken Thompson (sitting) and Dennis Ritchie (standing]] | + | [[Image:KenDMR.jpg|400px|thumb|right|Ken Thompson (sitting) and Dennis Ritchie (standing)]] |
'''Ken Thompson''' (often referred to as '''ken''') was an influential American computer scientist, best known for his work on [[UNIX]] (produced in collaboration with [[Dennis Ritchie]]). He also initiated the [[C programming language]], although most of the work on that was done by Ritchie. | '''Ken Thompson''' (often referred to as '''ken''') was an influential American computer scientist, best known for his work on [[UNIX]] (produced in collaboration with [[Dennis Ritchie]]). He also initiated the [[C programming language]], although most of the work on that was done by Ritchie. | ||
| − | He attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he received an undergraduate degree in 1965, and a master's degree in 1966. He went to work at [[Bell Labs]] in 1966, joining the Computing Sciences Research Center. He spent the rest of his career at the Labs, and its descendants | + | He attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he received an undergraduate degree in 1965, and a master's degree in 1966. He went to work at [[Bell Labs]] in 1966, joining the Computing Sciences Research Center. He spent the rest of his career at the Labs, and its descendants, retiring in 2000. He was part of the Bell team which joined the [[Multics]] project; after Bell pulled out of Multics, he and Ritchie eventually fell into UNIX and C. |
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Latest revision as of 17:02, 1 December 2025
Ken Thompson (often referred to as ken) was an influential American computer scientist, best known for his work on UNIX (produced in collaboration with Dennis Ritchie). He also initiated the C programming language, although most of the work on that was done by Ritchie.
He attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he received an undergraduate degree in 1965, and a master's degree in 1966. He went to work at Bell Labs in 1966, joining the Computing Sciences Research Center. He spent the rest of his career at the Labs, and its descendants, retiring in 2000. He was part of the Bell team which joined the Multics project; after Bell pulled out of Multics, he and Ritchie eventually fell into UNIX and C.
Further reading
- Brian Kernighan, UNIX: A History and a Memoir - has a brief bio of Thompson at the end of Chapter 2
External links
- Ken Thompson's Home Page
- Kenneth Thompson - brief biography at the IEEE Computer Society
- D. M. Ritchie and K. Thompson, The Unix Time-sharing System (PDF) - 1978 Bell System Technical Journal version
- An amusing photo - "Ken and [DMR] in front of a PDP-11"
- Ken and DMR - from another angle
