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July 1St Century and a Half Later by 1960S The underlying technology, the After CTSS, he moved onto Leibniz wheel, was reused a Multics [Nov 30] during the mid- July 1st century and a half later by 1960s. That OS is often deemed Thomas de Colmar [May 5] in his a commercial failure, but arithmometer, the first mass- nevertheless had an enormous Gottfried Wilhelm produced mechanical calculator. influence on the design of later systems. For example, UNIX was In 1961, Norbert Wiener [Nov written by two ex-Multics (von) Leibni[t]z 26] suggested that Leibniz programmers, Ken Thompson should be considered the patron Born: July 1, 1646; [Feb 4] and Dennis Ritchie [Sept saint of cybernetics. Leipzig, Saxony 9]. Died: Nov. 14, 1716 Corbató is credited with the first During the 1670s, Leibniz use of passwords (to secure independently developed a very Hans Peter Luhn access to CTSS), although he similar theory of calculus to that Born: July 1, 1896; himself suggested that they first of Issac Newton. More appeared in IBM’s SABRE Barmen, Germany importantly for us, at around the ticketing system [Nov 5]. same time, in 1672, Leibniz cam Died: August 19, 1964 Corbató’s Law: The number of up with the first practical Luhn is sometimes called “the lines of code a programmer can calculating machine, which he father of information retrieval”, write in a fixed period of time is called the “Step Reckoner”. He due to his invention of the Luhn the same independent of the had the initial idea from algorithm, KWIC (Key Words In language used. examining a pedometer. Context) indexing, and Selective It was the first calculator that Dissemination of Information could perform all four arithmetic (“SDI”) operations, although the carry The Luhn algorithm is a Project MAC operation wasn't fully checksum formula used to July 1, 1963 mechanized. By comparison, validate ID numbers, such as Pascal’s [June 19] earlier those found on credit cards. A Project MAC (the Project on Pascaline could only add and KWIC index is formed by sorting Mathematics and Computation) subtract. the words within was launched at MIT with a an article title to generous $2 million grant from allow each word to DARPA [Feb 7]. Its initial goal be searchable was to develop a computer alphabetically in system that was accessible to a the index. large number of people, but it would arguably become more Although he was famous for its AI research. most prolific in information The first Project MAC members retrieval, Luhn also included Robert Fano (the first A Stepped Reckoner, on display in invented a new kind of raincoat, director) [Nov 11], Marvin the very interesting Technische an enhanced gaming table, and Minsky [Aug 9], J.C.R. Licklider Sammlungen museum in Dresden. coined the term business [March 11], and Fernando J. Photo by Kolossos. CC BY-SA 3.0. intelligence; this latter Corbató [previous entry]. achievement may be explained Corbató brought CTSS [May 3], by the fact that he worked for He remarked in 1671: “It is with him from the MIT IBM for many years. unworthy of excellent men to Computation Center, and one of lose hours like slaves in the the early focuses of Project MAC labor of calculation which could was the development of a safely be relegated to anyone Fernando (Corby) successor, which became Multics else if machines were used.” [Nov 30]. Leibniz is also credited with the José Corbató Project MAC was initially located development of the binary Born: July 1, 1926; on the 8th and 9th floors of number system, which he MIT's Tech Square, a building described in “Explication de Oakland, California Died: July 12, 2019 now excitingly renamed NE-43. l’Arithmétique Binaire” in 1703. The ninth floor was reserved for Leibniz even mentioned the "I Corbató was a pioneer in the the project’s computer systems, Ching" in the article, noting how development of time-sharing which in 1964, included an IBM its hexagrams correspond to the OSes; in particular, he was 7094 [Nov 30], and a PDP-6 binary numbers from 0 to responsible for MIT's which was purchased by Minsky 111111. However, the Reckoner Compatible Time-Sharing specifically for the AI group used decimal digits, with an 8 System (CTSS) [May 3] within MAC. digit input section on the front. 1 Fano decided to call MAC a employees from nearby SRI as “a castrated version of the “project” rather than a (Stanford Research Institute), 8086 [June 8].” Both processors “laboratory” because of MIT's had the same architecture, the languorous politics. It was also only difference being that the much easier to ‘poach’ staff from 8088 used an 8-bit external data other departments to a project bus rather than 16-bits present rather than to a new lab. in the 8086. The MAC part of the name was Despite the harsh description, sometimes expanded to stand this modification (by Rafi Retter for "Multiple Access Computer", and Dany Star) proved to a good "Machine Aided Cognitions", and decision. As a result, the 8088 "Man and Computer". Insiders required fewer, less expensive preferred, “Minsky Against support chips than the 8086, Corbató”, due to the differences and was fully compatible with in mission and culture between existing 8-bit hardware. It also the groups headed by the two, offered a smooth transition to George E. Pake. (c) Xerox PARC and not least that Minsky's AI 16-bit processors. Group [Sept 00] received UC Berkeley, DARPA [Feb 7], These factors were why IBM roughly one third of MAC's total NASA, and others. In addition, chose the 8088 for its first PC in funding. It was hardly surprising the lab opened just as “Silicon [Aug 12] 1981. when Minsky split the AI Group Valley,” led by Robert Noyce's off from MAC in 1970, creating newly founded Intel, was taking the MIT AI Lab. Most of the shape. remaining MAC members went Tramiel Buys Atari on to form the Laboratory for Pake's successful employment Computer Science (LCS) in 1975. drive was helped by the 1970 July 1, 1984 Military Procurement Authorization Bill [Nov 19], Six months after resigning from which appeared to threaten Commodore [Jan 16], Jack Xerox PARC Opens DARPA funding to major Tramiel [Dec 13] formed a new July 1, 1970 universities such as MIT, company named Tramel Carnegie Mellon, and Stanford; Technology, Ltd. (TTL). The company was called “Tramel” At the end of the 1960’s, the CEO researchers from nearly every not "Tramiel" to help ensure of Xerox, Charles Peter one ended up at PARC. that it would be pronounced McColough's epiphany was that The end result was that PARC correctly (i.e., as “tra - mel” the copier company must enter was responsible (in large part ) instead of “tra - meal”). the business computing market. for the development of laser In May 1969 Xerox purchased printing [Jan 21], Ethernet [May On this day, TTL bought the SDS [July 21], renaming it Xerox 22], bitmap graphics, the Consumer Division of Atari [June Data Systems, and Jack Goldman, graphical user interface (GUI), 27] from Warner Xerox's Chief Scientist, asked object-oriented programming Communications. The division George Edward Pake to start a (Smalltalk [May 17]), word had fallen on hard times, due to second research center for the processing (Bravo [Oct 00]), the video game crash [Dec 7] of company, which became Xerox Interpress, a precursor to 1983. TTL was quickly renamed PARC (Palo Alto Research PostScript [Sept 11], non- Atari Corporation, and under Center). erasable, magneto-optical Tramiel’s guidance, developed the 16/32-bit Atari ST computer Pake hired ARPA’s Bob Taylor storage device, electronic line [Jan 10] which was very [Feb 10], who had overseen reusable paper, and ubiquitous successful in Europe, and Project GENIE [Nov 30], to head computing. globally influential in the PARC’s computer science lab. Many of these developments professional music business. Taylor in turn hired 20 were brought together in the employees, 11 of them from Xerox Alto in [March 1] 1973, its However, negative stories about BCC, a company formed by ex- successor the Dorado [May 6], Tramiel kept circulating, not members of Project GENIE, and the Xerox Star 8010 in least the one about Steve Arnold including Butler Lampson [Dec [April 27] 1981. All of them of LucasArts [Sept 12] 23], Charles Thacker [Feb 26], were commercial disasters. comparing Tramiel to Jabba the and L. Peter Deutsch [Aug 7]. Hutt, while within Atari, Darth PARC 's location in Palo Alto, Vader was considered a more suitable analogy. meant it was a goodly 3,000 miles away from the stuffy Xerox 8088 Introduced In the late 1980s, Tramiel headquarters in Rochester, New July 1, 1979 stepped down from day-to-day York. The distance both running of Atari, naming his son, increased research freedom, and Intel engineer Stephen Morse Sam, President and CEO. made it possible to attract memorably described the 8088 However in 1995, Sam Tramiel 2 suffered a heart attack, and his Tim Sweeney, the founder of father returned to oversee Epic Games. operations, which led to its sale On March 19, 2014, Epic in 1996 [Feb 29]. released the complete C++ source code for Unreal Engine 4 and all of its tools through a Duke Nukem subscription model. From March 2, 2015, it was made available Released for free. July 1, 1991 Apogee Software released the side-scrolling shooter Duke Nukem for IBM-compatibles, which, along with Commander Keen [Dec 14], helped make the shooter genre extremely popular. Sales of Duke Nukem 3D (1996) were greatly enhanced by its alleged promotion of pornography and murder, and the most recent installment, Duke Nukem Forever, is best known for spending 15 years in development hell.
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