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The importance of PARC

There was no single place in which Information Technology was invented, but there were a few in which significant advances were made. This is the story of one of those laboratories: Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre (PARC).

05 February 2009

“Every time you click a mouse on an icon, or open overlapping windows on your computer screen today, you are using technology invented at [Xerox] PARC. Compose a document by word processor, and your words reach the display via software invented at PARC. Make the print larger or smaller, replace ordinary typewriter letters with a Braggadocio or Gothic typeface – that’s also technology invented at PARC, as is the means by which a keystroke speeds the finished document by cable or infrared link to a laser printer. The laser printer, too, was invented at PARC.”

That passage was penned by Michael Hiltzik in the introduction of his seminal book Dealers of Lightning, about the origins of Xerox PARC. And while it neatly illustrates the importance of PARC in the scheme of all things technological, it doesn’t cover it all, by any stretch of the imagination. For example, other technologies invented at PARC include Smalltalk (the first object-oriented programming language), Ethernet, VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) [ a means of embedding more functionality in smaller bits of silicon – Ed], and the first 3-D computer graphics chip.

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