[COFF] "Hot Spot" High Performing Centres in Computing

[COFF] "Hot Spot" High Performing Centres in Computing

[steve jenkin]

Bell Labs Dept 1127 / CSRC qualifies as “Very High Performing” to me (is there a better name?)

Before that, John von Neumann and his team were outstanding in the field.

DARPA, under Licklider then Bob Taylor & Ivan Sutherland and more people I don’t know,
went on to fund game-changing technologies, such TCP/IP, including over Wireless and Satellite links.

Engelbart’s Augmentation Research Centre was funded by DARPA, producing NLS, the "oN-Line System”.

Taylor founded Xerox PARC, taking many of Engelbart’s team when the ARC closed.
PARC invented so many things, it’s hard to list…
Ethernet, Laser printers, GUI & Windowing System, Object Oriented (? good ?), what became ’the PC'

Evans & Sutherland similarly defined the world of Graphics for many years.

MIPS Inc created the first commercial RISC processor with a small team, pioneering using 3rd Party “Fabs”.
At 200 Mhz, it was twice the speed of competitors.

Seymour Cray and his small team built (with ECL) the fastest computers for a decade.
I heard that CDC produced a large, slow Operating System, so Cray went and wrote a better one “in a weekend”.
A hardware & software whizz.

I’ve not intended to leave any of the "Hot Spots” out.
While MIT did produce some good stuff, I don’t see it as “very high performing”.
Happy to hear disconfirming opinion.

What does this has to do with now?

Google, AWS and Space-X have redefined the world of computing / space in the last 10-15 years.

They've become High Performing “Hot Spots”, building technology & systems that out-perform everyone else.

Again, not intentionally leaving out people, just what I know without deeply researching.

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Is this a topic that’s been well addressed? If so, sorry for wasting time.

Otherwise, would appreicate pointers & comments, especially if anyone has created a ‘definitive’ list,
which would imply some criteria for admission.

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--
Steve Jenkin, IT Systems and Design 
0412 786 915 (+61 412 786 915)
PO Box 38, Kippax ACT 2615, AUSTRALIA

mailto:sjenkin@canb.auug.org.au http://members.tip.net.au/~sjenkin

[COFF] Re: "Hot Spot" High Performing Centres in Computing

[Larry McVoy]

On Sun, Oct 01, 2023 at 04:24:33PM +1100, steve jenkin wrote:
> Taylor founded Xerox PARC, taking many of Engelbart???s team when the ARC closed.
> PARC invented so many things, it???s hard to list???
> Ethernet, Laser printers, GUI & Windowing System, Object Oriented (? good ?), what became ???the PC'

And the mouse unless my boomer memory fails me.

[COFF] Re: "Hot Spot" High Performing Centres in Computing

[Clem Cole]

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On Sun, Oct 1, 2023 at 1:24 AM steve jenkin <sjenkin@canb.auug.org.au>
wrote:

>
> PARC invented so many things, it’s hard to list…
> Ethernet, Laser printers, GUI & Windowing System, Object Oriented (? good
> ?), what became ’the PC'
>
> What we call laser printers (xerography-based printers driven by a
computer) pre-dates PARC.   The XGP took a Xerox long-distance fax (LDX)
machine and connected it to the computer using the 200 bpi Hershey fonts.
 This is a picture from the late 1960s of the LDX:
[image: XeroxLong Distance Xerography LDX.jpg]

The CMU one was first online (shortly) followed by MIT and then Stanford
about 6 mons later.
Here are two of my favorite pics: loading TP into the XGP:

[image: Load TP into XGP.jpg]
and the output =- small diplomas:
[image: CMU Diplomas on toilet paper with sig.jpg]

Fun story about the PARC/Adobe's late Charles Geschke.  His Ph.D. thesis
was the first to be printed on it.  CMU's Library initially rejected it and
would not grant him his diploma, because they wanted the hand-typed masters
for their archives.    It took many months and lots of pleas from folks in
the CS Department to get him an exception - trying to explain they the
library had the master already.
ᐧ

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