PARC (company): Difference between revisions
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{{Infobox company |
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| name = PARC |
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| logo = [[Image:PARC logo color.svg|220px]] |
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| type = |
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| foundation = 1970 |
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| location_city = [[Palo Alto, California]] |
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| location_country = [[USA|U.S.A.]] |
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| industry = [[R&D]] |
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| parent = [[Xerox]] |
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| homepage = [http://www.parc.com/ parc.com] |
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[[Image:Parcentrance.jpg|thumb|right|PARC entrance.]] |
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[[Image:XeroxPARC.png|thumb|right|Xerox PARC old logo.]] |
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'''PARC''' (Palo Alto Research Center Incorporated), formerly '''Xerox PARC''', is a [[research and development]] company in [[Palo Alto, California]],<ref>"[http://www.parc.com/util/contact.html Contact]." PARC. Retrieved on November 11, 2010. "PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) 3333 Coyote Hill Road Palo Alto, CA 94304 USA"</ref><ref>"[http://www.parc.com/util/directions.html driving & public transportation directions]." PARC. Retrieved on November 11, 2010.</ref><ref>"[http://www.parc.com/util/map.html map]." PARC. Retrieved on November 11, 2010.</ref> with a distinguished reputation for its contributions to information technology and hardware systems. |
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Founded in 1970 as a division of [[Xerox Corporation]], PARC has been responsible for such well known and important developments as [[laser printing]], [[Ethernet]], the modern [[personal computer]], [[graphical user interface]] (GUI) and [[Desktop metaphor|desktop paradigm]], [[object-oriented programming]], [[ubiquitous computing]], amorphous silicon (a-Si) applications, and advancing [[Very-large-scale integration|very-large-scale-integration]] (VLSI) for semiconductors. |
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Xerox formed Palo Alto Research Center Incorporated as a wholly owned subsidiary in 2002. |
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==History== |
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In 1969, Chief Scientist at Xerox [[Jack Goldman]] approached [[George Pake]], a [[physicist]] specializing in [[nuclear magnetic resonance]] and [[provost (education)|provost]] of [[Washington University in St. Louis]], about starting a second research center for the company. |
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Pake selected Palo Alto, California, as the site of what was to become known as PARC. While the 3,000 mile buffer between it and Xerox headquarters in [[Rochester, New York]] afforded scientists at the new lab great freedom to undertake their work, the distance also served as an impediment in persuading management of the promise of some of their greatest achievements. |
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PARC's West Coast location proved to be advantageous in the mid-1970s, when the lab was able to hire many employees of the nearby [[SRI International|SRI]] [[Augmentation Research Center]] as that facility's funding from [[DARPA]], [[NASA]], and the [[U.S. Air Force]] began to diminish. Being situated on [[Stanford Research Park]] land leased from [[Stanford University]]<ref>[http://lbre.stanford.edu/realestate/map Map of Stanford Research Park] on Stanford University Real Estate web site</ref> |
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allowed Stanford graduate students to be involved in PARC research projects, and PARC scientists to collaborate with academic seminars and projects. |
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Much of PARC's early success in the computer field was under the leadership of its Computer Science Laboratory manager [[Robert Taylor (computer scientist)|Bob Taylor]], who guided the lab as associate manager from 1970 to 1977 and as manager from 1977 to 1983. |
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==PARC today== |
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After three decades as a division of Xerox, PARC was transformed in 2002 into an independent, wholly owned subsidiary company dedicated to developing and maturing advances in science and business concepts with the support of commercial partners and clients. |
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Xerox remains the company's largest customer (50%), but PARC has numerous other corporate and venture clients in different fields of use than Xerox including: [[VMware]], [[Fujitsu]], Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. (DNP), [[Samsung]], [[NEC]], SolFocus, Powerset, [[Thin Film Electronics ASA]] and many more. |
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PARC currently conducts research into "clean technology", [[user interface]] design, [[sensemaking]], [[ubiquitous computing]] and context-aware systems, large-area electronics, digital manufacturing, and model-based control and optimization in embedded, intelligent systems. |
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==Accomplishments== |
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Xerox PARC has been the inventor and incubator of many elements of modern computing in the contemporary office work place: |
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*[[Laser printer]]s, |
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*Computer-generated [[bitmap]] graphics |
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*The [[Graphical user interface]], featuring windows and icons, operated with a [[computer mouse|mouse]] |
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*The [[WYSIWYG]] text editor |
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*[[Interpress]], a resolution-independent graphical page-description language and the precursor to [[PostScript]] |
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*[[Ethernet]] as a local-area computer network |
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*Fully formed [[object-oriented programming]] in the [[Smalltalk]] [[programming language]] and integrated development environment. |
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*[[Model–view–controller]] software architecture |
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===The Alto=== |
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{{main|Xerox Alto}} |
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[[Image:Xerox Alto mit Rechner.JPG|thumb|Xerox Alto]] |
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Most of these developments were included in the Alto, which added the now familiar [[Stanford Research Institute|SRI]]-developed [[Computer mouse|mouse]]<ref name="fn_1">Xerox PARC was the first research group to widely adopt the mouse invented by [[Douglas Engelbart]]'s [[Augmentation Research Center]] at the [[Stanford Research Institute]] (now [[SRI International]]) in [[Menlo Park, California]],</ref> unifying into a single model most aspects of now-standard personal computer use. The integration of Ethernet prompted the development of the [[PARC Universal Packet]] architecture, much like today's Internet. |
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===The GUI=== |
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Xerox has been heavily criticized (particularly by business historians) for failing to properly commercialize and profitably exploit PARC's innovations. A favorite example is the [[GUI]], initially developed at PARC for the Alto and then commercialized as the [[Xerox Star]] by the Xerox Systems Development Department. Although very significant in terms of its influence on future system design, it is deemed a failure because it only sold approximately 25,000 units. A small group from PARC led by [[David Liddle]] and [[Charles Irby]] formed [[Metaphor Computer Systems]]. They extended the Star desktop concept into an animated graphic and communicating office-automation model and sold the company to IBM. |
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==Distinguished researchers== |
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Among PARC's distinguished researchers were three [[Turing Award]] winners: [[Butler W. Lampson]] (1992), [[Alan Kay]] (2003), and [[Charles P. Thacker]] (2009). The [[Association for Computing Machinery|ACM]] Software System Award recognized the Alto system in 1984, [[Smalltalk]] in 1987, [[InterLisp]] in 1992, and [[Remote Procedure Call]] in 1994. Lampson, Kay, Bob Taylor, and Charles P. Thacker received the [[National Academy of Engineering]]'s prestigious [[Charles Stark Draper Prize]] in 2004 for their work on the Alto. |
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=== People associated with PARC === |
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{{Div col begin|colwidth=15em}} |
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* [[Daniel G. Bobrow]] |
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* [[David Boggs]] |
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* [[Anita Borg]] |
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* [[John Seely Brown]] |
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* [[Bill Buxton]] |
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* [[Stuart Card]] |
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* [[Robert Carr (programmer)|Robert Carr]] |
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* [[Ed Chi]] |
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* [[Elizabeth F. Churchill]] |
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* [[Lynn Conway]] |
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* [[Franklin C. Crow]] |
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* [[Pavel Curtis]] |
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* [[Steve Deering]] |
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* [[L Peter Deutsch]] |
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* [[Paul Dourish]] |
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* [[Clarence Ellis (computer scientist)|Clarence Ellis]] |
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* [[David Em]] |
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* [[William English (computer engineer)|William English]] |
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* [[David Eppstein]] |
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* [[Matthew K. Franklin]] |
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* [[Sean R. Garner]] |
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* [[Charles Geschke]] |
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* [[Adele Goldberg (computer scientist)|Adele Goldberg]] |
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* [[Jack Goldman]] |
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* [[Timothy A. Gonsalves]] |
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* [[Bill Gosper]] |
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* [[Rich Gossweiler]] |
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* [[Rebecca Grinter]] |
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* [[Neil Gunther]] |
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* [[Marti Hearst]] |
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* [[Bruce Horn]] |
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* [[Bernardo Huberman]] |
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* [[Dan Ingalls]] |
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* [[Van Jacobson]] |
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* [[Natalie Jeremijenko]] |
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* [[Ronald Kaplan]] |
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* [[Lauri Karttunen]] |
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* [[Alan Kay]] |
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* [[Martin Kay]] |
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* [[Gregor Kiczales]] |
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* [[Ralph Kimball]] |
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* [[Butler Lampson]] |
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* [[Cristina Lopes]] |
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* [[Andrew K. Ludwick]] |
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* [[Jock D. Mackinlay]] |
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* [[David Maynard]] |
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* [[Edward M. McCreight]] |
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* [[Ralph Merkle]] |
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* [[Diana Merry]] |
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* [[Robert Metcalfe]] |
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* [[James G. Mitchell|Jim Mitchell]] |
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* [[Thomas P. Moran]] |
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* [[James H. Morris]] |
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* [[Martin Newell (computer scientist)|Martin Newell]] |
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* [[Geoffrey Nunberg]] |
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* [[Severo Ornstein]] |
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* [[George Pake]] |
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* [[Randy Pausch]] |
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* [[Ashwin Ram]] |
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* [[Prasad Ram]] |
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* [[Trygve Reenskaug]] |
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* [[George G. Robertson]] |
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* [[Eric Schmidt]] |
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* [[Ronald V. Schmidt]] |
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* [[Bertrand Serlet]] |
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* [[Scott Shenker]] |
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* [[John Shoch]] |
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* [[Charles Simonyi]] |
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* [[Brian Cantwell Smith]] |
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* [[Robert Spinrad]] |
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* [[Bob Sproull]] |
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* [[Gary Starkweather]] |
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* [[Maureen C. Stone]] |
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* [[Lucy Suchman]] |
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* [[Bert Sutherland]] |
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* [[Robert Taylor (computer scientist)|Robert Taylor]] |
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* [[Shang-Hua Teng]] |
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* [[Larry Tesler]] |
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* [[Chuck Thacker]] |
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* [[Bill Verplank]] |
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* [[John Warnock]] |
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* [[Mark Weiser]] |
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* [[Niklaus Wirth]] |
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* [[Frances Yao]] |
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* [[Annie Zaenen]] |
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{{Div col end}} |
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==Legacy== |
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PARC's developments in information technology served for a long time as standards for much of the computing industry. Many advances were not equalled or surpassed for two decades,{{citation needed|date=November 2012}} enormous timespans in the fast-paced high-tech world. |
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While there is some truth that Xerox management failed to see the potential of many of PARC's inventions, this was mostly centered to the computing research, a relatively small part of PARC's operations. Technologies pioneered by its [[materials science|materials scientists]] such as [[Liquid-crystal display|LCD]], [[optical disc]] innovations, and laser printing were actively and successfully introduced by Xerox to the business and consumer marketplaces.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.parc.com/about/milestones.html|title=Milestones, PARC, a Xerox company}}</ref> |
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Work at PARC since the early 1980s includes advances in [[ubiquitous computing]], [[aspect-oriented programming]], and [[IPv6]]. |
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==See also== |
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{{Portal|Computing|Companies|San Francisco Bay Area}} |
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* [[Xerox Daybreak]] (a.k.a. Xerox Windows 6085) |
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* [[GlobalView]] |
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==References== |
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{{Reflist}} |
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==Further reading== |
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* Michael A. Hiltzik, ''Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age'' ([[HarperCollins]], New York, 1999) ISBN 0-88730-989-5 |
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* Douglas K. Smith, Robert C. Alexander, ''Fumbling the Future: How Xerox Invented, Then Ignored, the First Personal Computer'' ([[William Morrow and Company]], New York, 1988) ISBN 1-58348-266-0 |
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* M. Mitchell Waldrop, ''The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal'' ([[Viking Press|Viking Penguin]], New York, 2001) ISBN 0-670-89976-3 |
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* [[Howard Rheingold]], ''[[Tools for Thought]]'' ([[MIT Press]], 2000) ISBN 0-262-68115-3 |
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==External links== |
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* [http://www.parc.com/ PARC official web site] |
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* [http://www.xerox.com/innovation/parc.shtml Xerox PARC innovation] |
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* [http://www.digibarn.com/friends/curbow/star/index.html Xerox Star Historical Documents] |
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* [http://www.mackido.com/Interface/ui_history.html MacKiDo article] |
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{{Coord|37.403|-122.149|type:landmark|display=title}} |
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* [http://purl.umn.edu/107717 Oral history interview with Terry Allen Winograd] [[Charles Babbage Institute]], [[University of Minnesota]], Minneapolis |
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* [http://purl.umn.edu/107640 Oral history interview with Paul A. Strassmann] [[Charles Babbage Institute]], [[University of Minnesota]], Minneapolis |
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* [http://purl.umn.edu/107349 Oral history interview with William Crowther] [[Charles Babbage Institute]], [[University of Minnesota]], Minneapolis |
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[[Category:Xerox|PARC]] |
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[[Category:History of human–computer interaction]] |
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[[Category:Software companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area]] |
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[[Category:Technology transfer]] |
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[[Category:Research and development organizations]] |
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[[Category:Companies based in Palo Alto, California]] |
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[[Category:Companies established in 1970]] |
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[[Category:Science and technology in the San Francisco Bay Area]] |
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[[Category:Research and development in the United States]] |
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[[Category:Company spin-offs]] |
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Revision as of 16:30, 7 April 2014
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (August 2013) |
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