1970 – 1972 – 1973 the Big Year

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◦ The Palo Alto Research Centre The Mother Of Modern Computing

By The Yellow Group

1973 The Big Year – 1970 – • Ethernet concept finalized. Xerox Corporation gathers together a team of world-class researchers. Their mission to create the “architecture of information”. • The Alto personal computer becomes operational Officially opens its doors in Palo Alto, California on July 1, 1970. Features the world’s first WYSIWYG editor A commercial mouse for input. (ask Hideo) A graphical user interface (GUI). 1972 – Also included a bit-mapped display. • The first version of Smalltalk is deployed. (ask Séan) And also offered menus and icons to the user.

The HP 9830 seen left is what constituted a personal computer in 1972. The Alto was At this same time the design of the Alto was produced in 1973. finalised.

Apple Lisa On the right is the SCELBI personal micro-computer. The Lisa reached the marketplace in 1983. Developed in 1973 and sold the same year.

It was the typical conception of a personal Xerox Alto computer at the time.

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Desktop Computing Paradigm

Visual Object Orientated Computing

Networking of the Future

Mainframes – Many users working on the same system. • Cost $10,000 in 1970’s.

Microcomputers – Smaller version of the • $40,000 in modern money! above. • Alto was not intended for commercial sales! Xerox Alto – A microcomputer for one.

ALTO SPECS 1970’s My Desktop PC from 2007 Ye Olde Programming Languages circa 1960’s

Bit-mapped black and white display 606x808 1900x1200 Flatscreen Display

Ethernet connection Ethernet connection Fortran Structured Programming 5.8 MHz CPU Dual-core 3,000 MHz CPU Numeric Computation Cobol Scientific Computing 128 KB of memory (expandable to 512k) 2,000,152 KB of memory Data Structuring 2.5 MB removable cartridge hard drive Removable USB Storage Devices and Disks Pascal

Three button mousemouse,, 646464-64 ---keykey keyboard Two button mouse, 108+ key keyboard Heavily Mathematically Based C About the size of a small refrigerator About half the size of a small refrigerator You must be an uber-geek to Prolog A Graphical User Interface A Graphical User Interface ride this mainframe!

Surprisingly Similar!

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What is Object Oriented Programming?

SIMULA I (1962-65) Programming that uses programmed artifacts known as “Objects” and their interactions to design applications in computer programs. Simula 67 (1967) Object orientated programming facilitates reuse of code.

The first object-oriented languages. Not commonly used in software application development until the early 1990’s.

Many old languages were converted to object oriented versions.

Alan Kay’s Learning Research Group (PARC) Smalltalk Inspired:

“We wanted our range of users to include children from age 5 or Syntax and Symantics of many other languages 6 and ‘noncomputer’ adults such as secretaries, librarians....” Alan Kay. Computational prototype of message passing – Simula Smalltalk (1970’s – 1980’s) Java

The Alto extended Object Oriented Programming Desktop Graphical User Interface – Windowing

Intergration of GUI’s Interactive Program Execution – Not having to wait for the Intergrated Development Environment for visual machine! programming tools.

The Ethernet is Everywhere! Pervasive Ethernet

THE standard for personal computing communications.

Used by the vast majority of internet devices – an enabler of pervasive computing.

Underlying protocol implemented on the Alto.

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Alto yields the first networked games! User-centric Personal Computing Maze War (1973) Desktop Computing Paradigm 1st Person Perspective ◦ One dedicated computer for each user Players wander about the Visual Object Orientated Computing maze looking for other players to shoot ◦ Easy to use interface for that user Alto Prior Art which Networking of the Future allowed others to copy the concept ◦ Lets the user communicate with any other user

What is a GUI ?

A graphical user interface is a type of user interface which allows people to interact with

Hideo Oda electronic devices such as computers.

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30 Years Later

Big Problem: Between the years of 1973 and 1975, there was a recession in the United States.

At the time that the Alto was launched, American consumers and businesses would also have been contemplating the Period in time Unemployment (%) upcoming problem of this recession, and therefore might not Late 1973 4.9 have been tempted to invest in a product such as the Alto. Early 1974 5.3 Add to this the price tag that the Alto carried with it, a hefty Late 1974 7.2 $40,000!! Early 1975 8.7 The price tag itself was the predominant reason that the Alto Late 1975 8.3 was not publicly advertised and not sold on the general market, as Xerox thought of it as “unmarketable”. Information from http://www.applet-magic.com/rec1974.htm

This coincided exactly with the release of the Alto in 1973.

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Unlimited Funding

Research for most of the revolutionary ideas contained had been done in a facility called PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) which had been established in 1970. A group of the best computer scientists in the world were given unlimited funding by Xerox to simply research and create new advancements in the field of computing These scientists began work on a new computer (The Alto), which would be unique due to it’s simplistic user interface and the ease at which commands could be executed

The technology used in the Xerox Alto determined and ultimately shaped future computers and computer technology.

As mentioned before, the revolutionary GUI, Ethernet and programming language used in the Alto were all bases upon which future advancements on those areas were based.

SmallTalk (Object Oriented Programming) Java, while Ethernet and the style of user interface are used nowadays in modern computers still.

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