FREE COMPUTING HISTORY · 1936–1943
Languages, chips & AI
A generation builds mainframes, languages, integrated circuits, computer graphics, and machine intelligence.
1936–1943
A generation builds mainframes, languages, integrated circuits, computer graphics, and machine intelligence.
- Andy Grove: Intel CEO; drove Moore's Law execution; Only the Paranoid Survive
- Margaret Hamilton: Apollo guidance software; coined "software engineering"; priority scheduling
- Richard Stearns: Founded computational complexity theory (with Hartmanis); time hierarchy theorem
- Vladimir Vapnik: Support Vector Machines (SVM); VC dimension; statistical learning theory; Vapnik-Chervonenkis theory
- Ted Nelson: Coined "hypertext" and "hypermedia"; Project Xanadu
- Larry Roberts: ARPANET program manager; network architecture
- Marcian "Ted" Hoff: Co-architect of Intel 4004 microprocessor
- Chuck Peddle: MOS Technology 6502: democratized computing
- John Conway: Game of Life; surreal numbers; combinatorial game theory; monstrous moonshine
- Mary Allen Wilkes: LINC operating system; first home computer user; LAP6 programming
- Donald Knuth: The Art of Computer Programming; TeX; LR parsing; analysis of algorithms; literate programming
- Ivan Sutherland: Sketchpad; "father of computer graphics"; VR pioneer (Sword of Damocles HMD, 1968)
- Bob Kahn: Co-inventor of TCP/IP
- Lynn Conway: VLSI revolution (with Mead); generalized dynamic instruction scheduling; Mead-Conway revolution
- Manuel Blum: Blum axioms; CAPTCHAs; zero-knowledge proofs; program checking
- Barbara Liskov: Liskov Substitution Principle; CLU language; data abstraction; Argus distributed language
- Zohar Manna: Program verification; temporal logic for programs; Mathematical Theory of Computation
- Stephen Cook: Cook's theorem: NP-completeness; Cook-Levin theorem; P vs NP framing
- Ivar Jacobson: UML co-creator; use cases; Objectory; Rational Unified Process
- Chuck Geschke: Co-founded Adobe; PostScript; PDF; desktop publishing revolution
- Alan Kay: Smalltalk; OOP; Dynabook concept; GUI at PARC; "the best way to predict the future is to invent it"
- John Warnock: Co-founded Adobe; PostScript; PDF; Illustrator
- C.J. Date: Relational database theory; An Introduction to Database Systems; worked with Codd
- Dennis Ritchie: C language; co-created UNIX
- Federico Faggin: Intel 4004 (first microprocessor); Z80; silicon-gate MOS technology
- Leslie Lamport: Distributed systems theory; LaTeX; Paxos; Lamport clocks; Byzantine fault tolerance; TLA+
- Amir Pnueli: Temporal logic for program verification; model checking foundations; Turing Award
- Brian Kernighan: The C Programming Language; coined "UNIX"; AWK; The Practice of Programming
- Gary Kildall: CP/M: first widely used microcomputer OS; concept of BIOS
- David Rumelhart: Popularized backpropagation (1986); Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP) group
- Victor Scheinman: Stanford Arm; PUMA robot: defined the modern robotic arm
- Per Martin-Löf: Intuitionistic type theory: foundation of modern proof assistants (Coq, Agda, Lean)
- David Cutler: VMS; Windows NT architect; Azure; most important OS architect of modern era
- Ken Thompson: UNIX; B language; Go language; UTF-8; Plan 9; regular expression implementation
- Vint Cerf: Co-inventor of TCP/IP; "Father of the Internet"
- Butler Lampson: Xerox Alto; personal distributed computing; PARC OS concepts
- Charles Thacker: Designed the Xerox Alto
- Nolan Bushnell: Founded Atari; Pong; launched the video game industry
- Jon Postel: RFC editor; DNS architecture; SMTP; "be liberal in what you accept" (Postel's law)
- Alvy Ray Smith: Co-founded Pixar; alpha compositing; HSV color model; cellular automata graphics