On January 4, 2002, the Xerox Palo Alto
Research Center becomes Palo Alto Research Center Incorporated.
As an independent company, PARC is poised to deliver research and
innovation to industry leaders in many fields.
2000
Gyricon Media Inc. (GMI) is spun out
to commercialize PARC's "electronic reusable paper," a
document display technology that is thin, flexible and portable
like paper but can be connected to a network and reused thousands
of times. When an electric charge is applied to it, the material
displays and changes text and graphics, so the display can be updated
with a click of a mouse. GMI will become a leading provider of SmartPaper
innovations and signage solutions.
ContentGuard, a joint venture between
Xerox and Microsoft, is spun-out to develop and license
software for digital rights management. ContentGuard solutions offer
content owners more control and flexibility over the distribution
of their content. Its eXtensible rights Markup Language (XrML) digital
rights-management software, developed at PARC, authorizes access
to content or a network service in a language that multiple systems
can read.
GroupFire is spun out to commercialize
almost 70 PARC intellectual property claims covering information
retrieval and data mining, natural language semantic analysis, and
artificial intelligence. GroupFire enables personalized and simplified
Internet searches by managing bookmarks and allowing access to them
from any computer that is connected to the Internet. GroupFire will
later become Outride, Inc. Its intellectual property assets and
technology will be acquired by Google.
1999
The ACM SIGMOBILE Award is given posthumously
to PARC's Chief Technology Officer in recognition of
his numerous sustained contributions and visionary leadership in
the field of ubiquitous computing.
Building on ubiquitous computing research from PARC and the Xerox
Research Centre Europe, the MobileDoc
software and services solution is launched. MobileDoc
supports the work of mobile professionals by providing streamlined
access to remote documents. Using a mobile browser with infrared
or radio to communicate wirelessly, a user can access, print, fax
and scan documents.
1998
Uppercase, Inc. is spun-out
to commercialize a result of ubiquitous computing research: a lightweight,
portable document reader (PDR) which includes a display, computer
processor, battery and network connections for document access and
viewing. Microsoft will acquire the company in the future.
1997
PARC enables Xerox to be the first printing
company to create a blue laser. The reduced wavelength
of a blue laser may ultimately allow much higher-resolution printing
than is possible with today's standard red and infrared lasers.
Initially led by a team of PARC researchers, the HTTP-NG
Internet protocol is developed. The protocol is based
on Inter-language Unification (ILU) from PARC.
1996
Inxight Software, Inc., is spun out.
Inxight provides information visualization and knowledge extraction
software to help users access and make sense of large amounts of
information on the Internet. Its software commercializes the results
of PARC's unique approach to the visualization of information that
uses a hyperbolic browser and other focus-plus-context visualization
techniques to give the user 3-D views of text databases.
Research on how a sense of place can create more meaningful interaction
on the Internet results in a spin-out company
called Placeware, in which Xerox holds a partial interest.
PlaceWare provides users with a live, Web-based presentation solution
for field and customer communication. It will become the largest
Internet meeting solutions provider.
Built on early work on amorphous silicon (a-Si) thin-film transistors,
PARC spins off dpiX to commercialize
the world's highest resolution active matrix liquid crystal display
(AMLCD) monitors, making a flat panel display that's as easy to
read as paper; a digital x-ray system that replaces the film used
on medical imaging; and a generation of "flash scanners,"
capable of scanning a document in a fraction of a second.
1995
A PARC computer scientist continues
playing a lead role in designing the protocols that govern and define
how the Internet works when he collaborates
with an Australian computer scientist in
the design of IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6).
PARC's multi-beam lasers are in use in
Xerox's DocuTech, DocuPrint and Document Center product families
as well as numerous products from Fuji Xerox. These lasers are a
key component of achieving the high-speed, high-resolution print
quality for which these product lines are known.
Mid-90s
Constraint-based scheduling technology is
developed. This technology uses intelligent
modeling to create real-time machine control, providing the planning
software that enables Xerox's DocuCenter "plug and play"
family of copiers. It gives Xerox a competitive hardware advantage
by enabling very effective and efficient machine control at customers'
sites. These reusable models also improve time to market and performance
quality.
1994
Social scientists' and ethnographers' observations of customers
using copiers and copier technicians repairing them provides tools
for generating information systems that enable productivity and
learning through lateral communication. One tool is the Eureka
initiative, a database system for supporting collaboration and knowledge
sharing in the Xerox field service community. The system helps
over 20,000 Xerox technicians worldwide improve the quality of their
service and dramatically increase customer satisfaction.
It will enable Xerox to save approximately 5% of its field service
cost and to win awards for its leadership in the realm of knowledge
sharing.
1993
DocuPrint, the software used
to drive Xerox's high-end network printing strategies, is created.
Based on a legacy of knowledge in higher-level languages, integrated
software for page description, and device-independent imaging, the
software is developed in less than six
months as a tactical release. It will become the cornerstone
of Xerox's network printing strategy.
Beating out the Rolling Stones by twenty minutes, PARC's
Chief Technologist and his band are the first musical group to perform
live on the Internet. Two PARC researchers provide engineering
for the event.
1992
Six researchers receive an award from
the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) for their work on the
Interlisp programming language. The award is given to
an institution or individual(s) recognized for developing a software
system that has had a lasting influence, reflected in contributions
to concepts, in commercial acceptance, or both.
Xerox PaperWorks software, which uses
PARC's DataGlyph technology to link users with personal
computers from remote locations through fax machines, is
released. By faxing customized PaperWorks forms, users
can instruct their PCs to retrieve, store, distribute and organize
documents. The software bridges paper documents and computer-based
technologies, turning the PaperWorks forms into a computer interface.
PARC plays a leading role in designing the protocols that govern
and define how the Internet works. The
MBone, the multimedia multicast backbone of the Internet, is co-founded
and first implemented at PARC to deliver real-time audio
and video over the Internet.
LiveBoards, shared electronic whiteboards
for collaboration, are on display at Comdex and in operation at
EXPO'92 in Seville, Spain. LiveWorks is spun out to bring
LiveBoards to the marketplace.
Fully interconnected versions of the LiveBoard
(an electronic whiteboard), PARCPad
(a notebook-sized device) and PARCTab
(a pager-sized device) communicate wirelessly
using infrared signals. This research on ubiquitous computing
will, in the future, lead to the formation of three Xerox entities:
Mobile-Doc, LiveWorks and Uppercase.
1991
The Xerox 5100 copier, which
makes 66 11x17-inch copies per minute (the industry's fastest) and
100 letter-size copies per minute, is released. The copier utilizes
amorphous silicon thin-film transistor technology developed
at PARC.
1990
PARC's first x-ray imager using amorphous
silicon is built. Research on digital x-ray imaging and
document scanning using flat panel, print-quality display technology
will result in the formation of a Xerox New Enterprise Company,
dpiX.
Semaphore Communications is spun-out
to bring advanced encryption systems for networks technology to
the marketplace. A distinguishing feature of this technology is
that it performs encryption in the hardware, which makes it faster
than most software-based products. Within the first year, sales
reach $1million.
Documentum is spun-out to commercialize
document management solutions. Documentum software enables a change
made in one place in a document to be automatically replaced in
all appropriate places in a document. This software greatly improves
document management processes for Xerox customers, particularly
in the document-intensive pharmaceutical, insurance, and automotive
industries.
A PARC computer scientist creates LambdaMOO,
a multi-user domain (MUD), as an experiment in collective
programming and creation to see how a sense of place can create
more meaningful interaction on the Internet. This research will
later result in the formation of a spin-out company, Placeware,
and the technology will become the foundation for a collaborative
computing systems for the U.S. Dept. of Defense. LambdaMOO will
become one of the oldest continuously operating MUDs.
Xerox DocuBuild publishing software,
which enables workgroups to collectively manage and contribute to
the publishing process, is released. The software provides
industry-first high-speed pagination and compound document WYSIWYG
support of the Standard Generalized Markup Language.
Xerox ViewCards, a multi-purpose hypertext
software tool that organizes and shows relationships
among large amount of computerized textual and graphical information,
is released. The product uses
Notecard technologies, originally invented at PARC as an idea-processing
tool for information analysts.
The National Security Agency endorses
the Xerox Encryption Unit, an electronic device that
mathematically encodes computer signals so they may travel in top
security on ordinary local-area networks. The device is built on
encryption research done at PARC.
A LiveBoard is installed in PARC's Colab, an experimental meeting
room created to enhance collaboration during meetings. The
LiveBoard is a blackboard-sized touch-sensitive screen
capable of displaying an image of approximately a million pixel
with a stand-up keyboard and an electronic "pen." This
collaborative tool enables colleagues
both locally and in remote locations to work together using real-time,
multi-media documents. It will later spawn the LiveWorks
business unit.
1989
Five PARC computer scientists receive
the ACM Software Systems Award for their work on PostScript.
The Award is given to an institution or individual(s) in recognition
for developing a system software that has had a lasting influence,
reflected in contributions to concepts, in commercial acceptance,
or both.
PARC develops a unique approach to the
visualization of information that uses people's perceptual
and cognitive capacities to help them deal with large amounts of
information. The approach is used in 3-D Rooms and is an integral
technique used in the Xerox product Visual Recall. It results in
the invention of the hyperbolic browser and other focus-plus-context
visualization techniques that give the user three-dimensional views
of text databases. These visualization techniques offer a revolutionary
way for people to access information on the Internet and will later
result in the formation of a PARC spin out, Inxight Software, Inc.
The Xerox Encryption Unit,
an electronic device that mathematically
encodes computer signals so they may travel in top security on ordinary
local-area networks is released. The device, built on
encryption research done at PARC, will be endorsed by the National
Security Agency within a year.
PARC becomes a world leader in the development
of embedded data schemes.
Glyphs, which transform paper into a user interface, are used in
many applications including data verification and finishing applications.
DataGlyph technology to link users with personal computers from
remote locations through fax machines, will later be released in
the Xerox PaperWorks software product.
Research on amorphous silicon (a-Si) will
lead PARC scientists to develop a-Si thin film transistors and sensors
that will become the backbone for several technologies commercialized
in a spin out to manufacture computer displays that are as easy
to read as paper.
Late '80s
Text support in the Xerox 8010 STAR Information
System using a 16-bit coding system
designed to represent any of the world's scripts
in documents, user names, file names and network services
is completed. They are representable in any combination
with a single encoding. This multilingual technology is the origin
of the ISO/IEC 10646 and correlated Unicode text encoding standards
that will become the default representation of text worldwide on
the Internet and in globalized operating systems.
1988
Revolutionary work begins in building
fundamental mobile devices (the palm-sized PARCTabs and
the book-sized PARCPads) and a flexible computational infrastructure
to create an environment of embedded computation. This work will
substantially precede many of the wireless infrastructures, devices
and applications in today's marketplace. The term "ubiquitous
computing," coined at PARC to describe this work, will become
industry-standard terminology to refer to an environment in which
portable, connected computational tools are pervasive. Three Xerox
businesses will later be formed from this research: Mobile-Doc,
LiveWorks and Uppercase.
The Smalltalk-80 object-oriented programming
language is commercialized through the formation of ParcPlace
Systems. First deployed in 1972, Smalltalk was the first object-oriented
programming language with an integrated user interface, overlapping
windows, integrated documents, and cut & paste editor. The business,
formed to market products based on the Smalltalk-80 programming
environment and to further develop and support Smalltalk-80 standards,
will later become ObjectShare.
The Xerox 8836 engineering laser plotter, the
first wide-format engineering laser plotter, is released.
The plotter uses amorphous silicon high-voltage transistors for
print heads developed at PARC.
The Xerox Pro Illustrator,
an application for the ViewPoint software, is licensed. The program
allows professional artists to create
two-dimensional, vector illustrations and edit graphics.
One product enabler is PARC's research on page description languages.
1987
The Colab, a PARC meeting room that provides
computational support for collaboration in face-to-face meetings,
is completed. The room has a personal computer for each
participant that is linked to each other via the Ethernet to support
a distributed database. To promote shared viewing and access to
what is written during meetings, Colab software uses a multi-user
interface called WYSIWIS (What-You-See-Is-What-I-See), but it also
supports private windows which correspond to personal notepads.
This work on collaborative tools will result in the development
of a product for document-based group collaboration and the spinning
out of the LiveWorks business unit.
Three PARC researchers receive the ACM
Software Systems Award for their work on the Smalltalk programming
environment. The Award is given to an institution or
individual(s) in recognition for developing a system software that
has had a lasting influence, reflected in contributions to concepts,
in commercial acceptance, or both.
1986
Xerox's printing business,
made possible by PARC's invention of laser xerography, reaches
$1billion per year.
Xerox spin-off, Microlytics, brings PARC's
artificial intelligence spell-checking software, linguistic, and
data compression technologies to market through its release
of TypeRight. TypeRight is an electronic accessory for Xerox's 600
Series Memorywriter typewriters to check spelling and correct typographical
errors.
The Xerox 4050 laser printer,
which incorporates the latest innovations in lasography, electronics
and xerography, is released. The printer produces
typeset-quality text and graphics at 50 pages a minute, and can
be linked to host computers or clusters of workstations.
In addition to employing the results of PARC's research on data
transmission, storage, and laser imaging technologies, cognitive
modeling systems were used in its design.
Three years after its founding, Spectra
Diode Labs (SDL) becomes the world leader in high-power solid-state
lasers. SDL is a Xerox and Spectra-Physics joint venture
formed to exploit PARC's gallium arsenide-based solid-state laser
research by manufacturing state-of-the-art laser diodes.
PARC is the home of the world's first
multi-beam lasers. Because the laser emits two beams
rather than a standard single beam, it prints twice as fast. These
lasers will enable Xerox's fastest printing systems and will be
used in Xerox's DocuTech, DocuPrint and Document Center product
families as well as numerous Fuji Xerox products. The multi-beam
lasers are a key component of achieving the high-speed, high-resolution
print quality for which these product lines are known.
1985
Synoptics Communications, Inc. is spun-out
to commercialize fiber optic media for the Ethernet. Within three
years Synoptics will have its original public offering. It will
later become Bay Networks, and then be acquired by Nortel.
Xerox spins out Microlytics
to commercialize PARC's early compression technology research by
bringing artificial intelligence spell-checking software, linguistic
and data compression technologies to market. Based on an understanding
of the deep structure and mathematical properties of language, linguistic
compression technology is used for visual recall, intelligent retrieval
and data compression. This work has a major impact on the automatic
processing of language structures and is one of the key research
areas underpinning Xerox's multilingual suite of products.
The Xerox 1185 and 1186 Artificial Intelligence
(AI) Workstations, intended for the design, use and delivery
of AI software and expert systems, are released. These artificial
intelligence machines use the Interlisp-D
programming environment and computer techniques developed at PARC
to duplicate the human cognitive process of problem solving.
The Xerox 6085 Professional Computer System
that runs PC programs and has advanced ViewPoint software document-processing
capabilities, is released. The product builds on a foundation
of PARC's Alto personal workstation and has features and performance
capabilities beyond that of the previously released 8010 STAR Information
System.
1984
Three PARC computer scientists receive
the ACM Software Systems Award for their work on the Alto personal
workstation. The award is given to an institution or
individual(s) in recognition for developing a system software that
has had a lasting influence, reflected in contributions to concepts,
in commercial acceptance, or both.
The solid-state laser from
Xerox and Spectra-Physic's joint venture, Spectra
Diode Labs, Inc., is selected as the outstanding
product of the year by "Lasers and Applications"
magazine.
Mid '80s
Using the Interlisp-D environment,
PARC researchers develop Trillium and Pride
expert systems for artificial intelligence programming.
Trillium enables the quick simulation of new
user interface designs. Pride captures engineers' experiences and
"rules of thumb" for designing paper paths using pinch
rollers.
Xerox markets Lisp workstations that use
the Interlisp-D programming language to support artificial intelligence
programming as
well as applications utilized within Xerox. Developed as a computing
environment for research in cognitive science, Interlisp-D combines
ideas for rapid prototyping with explicit knowledge representation.
With the Loops object-oriented extensions, it will be used to develop
a number of valuable knowledge-based systems for Xerox.
1983
The Superpaint frame buffer wins
Xerox and its inventor an Emmy award.
The frame buffer enabled faster processing of memory intensive animation
and graphics for the Alto and 8010 STAR's personal workstations'
advanced graphical user interfaces.
PARC's gallium arsenide-based solid-state
laser research results in hundreds of patents to date.
To exploit this work, Spectra Diode Labs, Inc. (SDL), a joint venture
between Xerox and Spectra Physics, Inc., is formed. SDL will develop,
manufacture, and market high-power state-of-the-art solid-state
semiconductor laser diodes and will become the industry's world
leader.
A one-inch array of amorphous silicon
thin-film transistors to drive a small corjet ionographic print
head is made. This technology will have many applications
in printing and input scanning, and will lead to an architecture
to enable a low-end multifunction machine which can print, scan
and copy.
1982
An optical cable local area network is
designed. Fiber optic media for the Ethernet will later
be commercialized through the spin out company Synoptics Communications,
Inc.
The 100,000-square foot addition
to the 3333 Coyote Hill site is completed.
A multiple-stripe principle for high continuous
power for solid-state lasers is demonstrated. One-watt
optical power (up 20X) is achieved. This tiny solid-state laser
device has a higher radiation power output than has been achieved
anywhere else in the world. Higher output lasers will be incorporated
in Xerox copiers and printers.
The Xerox 8700 electronic printing system,
which produces and prints computer-generated text, business forms
and other images at 70 pages per minute, is released. The system
includes high-speed electronic storage
system, page description language, acousto-optical modulation, and
Ethernet technologies from PARC.
The Xerox 1075 copier/duplicator, which uses the Ethernet principal
to facilitate varying the document handling and output sorting configurations,
is released. Xerox's 10 Series Marathon
copiers are the first to use numerous built-in microcomputers with
a low-bandwidth Ethernet as the communications interface.
The IEEE adopts a standard that is almost
pure Ethernet. The Ethernet standard spawned a series
of increasingly sophisticated networking protocols that not only
enabled distributed computing, but led to a re-architecting of the
internal computer-to-computer communication within Xerox copiers
and duplicators. The Ethernet will become the global standard for
interconnecting computers on local-area networks.
1981
At a Chicago tradeshow, Xerox unveils
the 8010 STAR Information System.
PARC's Alto personal workstation is the foundation for this product.
The 8010's features include all of the Alto's capabilities plus
multilingual software, the Mesa programming language, and interim
file servers. The system allows users to create complex documents
by combining computing, text editing and graphics, and to access
file servers and printers around the world through simple point-and-click
actions, a functionality that has yet to be matched by today's computing
systems.
1980
Optimem is spun out to commercialize
non-erasable magneto-optical storage device technologies originally
developed to enable high-speed access of information for the Alto.
Optimem later becomes Cipher Data Products.
The Xerox 8000 network system,
which allows the assembly of an integrated office network in which
users can electronically create, process, file, print and distribute
information, is released. The system uses
PARC's Cedar file system and Interim File System (IFS), Ethernet
and electronic mail technologies.
The Xerox 5700 laser printer system
is released. The printer combines, into
one unit, copying capability with several PARC innovations:
acousto-optic modulation, word processing, electronic mail, and
remote computer printing via Ethernet.
The Interpress page description language
(PDL), that allows workstations to communicate with multiple printers,
is completed.
Xerox, Intel and Digital Equipment Corporation
jointly issue a formal specification for Ethernet, making
it publicly available for a nominal licensing fee. Ethernet will
become the global standard for interconnecting computers on local-area
networks.
Software copyright for the Smalltalk-80
object-oriented programming language is filed. It is
one of only three software copyrights existing at the time.
The language is licensed to universities and commercial institutions.
Smalltalk is the first object-oriented programming language with
an integrated user interface, overlapping windows, integrated documents,
and cut & paste editor. Smalltalk will later be commercialized
when Xerox spins out ParcPlace Systems.
1979
Linguistic technology to enable spell
checkers, a Thesaurus and reverse dictionary applications is developed.
It will be employed in the future Xerox Memorywriter typewriters
and 8010 STAR Information System
Xerox's Office Products Division announces that all
future Xerox products will communicate through Ethernet.
Nearly 1,000 Alto personal workstations
have been built and are in use throughout
Xerox, linked by Ethernet local area networks (LANs)
and gateways. Another 500 are in use in
universities and government offices.
Late 1970s
The Network
Architecture IFS "interim file server" code is completed.
Along with the development of Ethernet, Alto and research prototypes
of networking protocols for distributed computing, this leads to
the development of XNS, Xerox's robust, leading-edge networking
protocol. This technology will be incorporated in the future Xerox
8010 STAR Information System.
1978
A "worm" program,
the term used for a computer program that searches out other computer
hosts, then copies itself and self destructs after a programmed
interval, is invented by two PARC researchers.
The Dorado, a high-performance personal
computer, and Notetaker, a suitcase-sized machine that
will become the forerunner of portable computers, are
completed.
1977
The Xerox 5400, the first Xerox copier/duplicator
with a built-in diagnostic microcomputer, is released.
The machine connects to the Ethernet to enable computer-to-computer
communications using protocols invented at PARC.
The Xerox 9700 Electronic Printing System,
the first xerographic laser printer product, is released. The 9700,
a direct descendent from the original PARC "EARS" printer
which pioneered in laser scanning optics, character generation electronics,
and page-formatting software, is the first
product on the market to be enabled by PARC research.
Electronic printing enables seamlessly transferring digital documents
into the paper domain, and changes the entire notion of documents
and document processing. Xerox's laser xerographic printing business
will reach $1billion per year by 1986.
A PARC Lab Manager and her colleague begin drafting the "Introduction
to VLSI Systems" textbook. The book is
written and typeset on PARC's desktop publishing system.
Very large scale integration (VLSI) integrated circuit design will
provide greater computing power in more compact machines, lead to
a new generation of computer-aided design (CAD) tools and reduced
design time, and make dramatic improvements in system functions.
1976
Personal distributed computing, client/server
architecture, and laser printing is commercialized in Alto personal
workstation probes at the White House and universities.
The Dover-Alto software character generation
laser raster output scanner (ROS) prototype printer is developed.
Electronic printing on laser printers will provide a means of seamlessly
transferring digital documents into the paper domain.
1975
PARC's current site at 3333
Coyote Hill Road in Palo Alto, California is completed in February
at a size of 100,000 square feet; the doors officially
open on March 1.
Engineers demonstrate a graphical user
interface for a personal computer, including icons and the first
use of pop-up menus. This interface will be incorporated
in future Xerox workstations and greatly influence the development
of Windows and Macintosh interfaces.
1974
The first distributed feedback (solid
state) laser using gallium arsenide (GaAs), a material
of considerable electronic interest, is
demonstrated. This work will later result in a joint
venture between Xerox and Spectra Physics to manufacture high-power
solid-state lasers.
A software document architecture
that enables device-dependent aspects of
imaging to be cleanly separated from generic imaging operations
is designed. This printer-independent interface leads to Page Description
Languages (PDLs) that enable the construction of documents from
higher-level sources. They are the intermediaries between tools
for creating documents and devices for displaying them. Press, the
first PDL, is developed by PARC scientists and greatly influenced
the design of Interpress and Postscript.
The Bravo word-processing program is completed,
and work on Gypsy, the first bitmap What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get
(WYSIWYG) cut & paste editor, begins. Bravo and Gypsy
programs together represent the world's first user-friendly computer
word-processing system.
BITBlt, an algorithm that enables programmers
to manipulate images very rapidly without using special hardware,
is invented. The computer command enables the quick manipulation
of the pixels of an image and will make possible the development
of such computer interfaces as overlapping screen windows and pop-up
menus.
1973
Ground breaking for PARC's current site
at 3333 Coyote Hill Road in Palo Alto, California begins
in August.
The Superpaint frame buffer records and
stores its first video image: its inventor holding a
sign that reads "It works, sort of." The frame buffer
enables faster processing of memory intensive animation and graphics
for the anticipated advanced graphical user interface of the Alto.
A decade later, Xerox and its inventor will win an Emmy award for
the technology.
The first laser printer, called EARS
(for Ethernet-Alto research character generator scanning laser output
terminal) is in service, printing documents
at 1 page/second at 384 spots per inch (spi). It will
be the foundation for the Xerox 9700 Electronic Printing System
and Xerox's printing business.
A patent memo describing a new networking
system uses the term "Ethernet" for the first time.
A few months later, an entry about Ethernet in a researcher's lab
notebook reads: "It works!" This new protocol for multiple
computers communicating over a single cable will spawn a series
of sophisticated networking protocols enabling distributed computing
and re-architecting of the internal computer-to-computer communication
within Xerox copiers and duplicators. Ethernet will become a global
standard for interconnecting computers on local-area networks.
The Alto personal computer becomes operational.
As it evolves, the Alto will feature the world's first What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get
(WYSIWYG) editor, a commercial mouse for input, a graphical user
interface (GUI), and bit-mapped display, and will offer menus and
icons, link to a local area network and store files simultaneously.
The Alto will provide the foundation for Xerox's STAR 8010 Information
System.
Client/server architecture is invented.
This development makes the paradigm shift of moving the computer
industry away from the hierarchical world of centralized mainframes
- that download to dumb terminals - towards more distributed access
to information resources.
Personal distributed computing is invented.
PARC's vision of computers as tools that could help people work
together will change the course of the computer industry and lead
to new ways of organizing interactions to support both individual
and collaborative work.
1972
Full electronic character generation is
demonstrated with laser raster
output scanner (ROS) xerography. Electronic printing
on laser printers will provide a means of seamlessly transferring
digital documents into the paper domain.
The first version of Smalltalk is deployed. Smalltalk
is the first object-oriented programming language with an integrated
user interface, overlapping windows, integrated documents, and cut
& paste editor. The concept that objects are described
and addressed individually, and can be linked together with other
objects without having to rewrite an entire program, will revolutionize
the software industry. Smalltalk will later heavily influence C++
and Java programming systems.
1971
The concept of modulating a laser to create an electronic image
on a copier's drum becomes reality when the
world's first laser computer printer demonstrates artificially generated
laser raster output scanner (ROS) xerography at 500 spots per inch
(spi). This will become the basis of Xerox's xerographic
printing business that will later generate $1 billion per year.
1970
Xerox Corporation gathers together a team
of world-class researchers in information sciences and
physical sciences and gives them the mission to
create "the architecture of information." The
Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) officially opens its doors
at 3180 Porter Drive in Palo Alto, California on July 1, 1970.
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