PARC

The 1970s were a time of rapid development in the personal computer hardware market. Arguably one of the most important events in the history of computers was the establishment of PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) by the Xerox Corporation in Palo Alto, California in 1970. At the time computers were still in their infancy and the world was rushing to develop new technologies. XEROX PARC was on the forefront of those technology innovations. Though PARC had limited commercial success from their discoveries, historically computer users feel their impact on a daily basis.

In 1970 Xerox recruited George Pake as the founding director of its fledgling research center PARC and gave him “the mission to create ‘the architecture of information” (PARC, 2007). Under guidance from founding director George Pake, PARC recruited some of the brightest researchers from around the world. Together they would change the face of personal and business computers. Notable researchers included: Stuart Card (human computer interactions), Alan Kay (pioneer in object oriented programming), Butler Lampson (envisioned the personal computer in 1972 in a now historic memo “Why Alto?”), Robert Metcalfe (inventor of the Ethernet), George Robertson (3d User interfaces, information visualization), Charles Simonyi (Bravo, the first WYSIWYG text editor), and Lynn Conway (pioneer in VLSI systems).

PARC was the birthplace of many of the technologies that are still in use today. Many of the technologies were years ahead of their time. Without the innovations and discoveries computers, electronics, the way business is conducted and life in general may look a lot different. Some of the technologies first developed at PARC include: the first laser printer (EARS), Ethernet, GUI (graphical user interface), Smalltalk (dynamic object-oriented programming), InterPress (precursor to Adobe PostScript), the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) text editor, SuperPaint, and advancing very-large-scale-integration or VLSI (microchip design).

PARC is often overlooked today, however, 28 years later PARC is still functioning as an innovator. Currently, their work includes research into semiconductor lasers, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), security, IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6), wireless networks, linguistic analysis, and biomedical sciences. They are research and development partners with Fujitsu, Scripps Cancer Center, the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory.