 | |
 Aerial view of Xerox PARC in 2020 | |
| Company type |
|
|---|---|
| Industry | R&D |
| Founded | July 1, 1970; 54 years ago (1970-07-01) |
| Founder | Jacob E. Goldman[1] |
| Headquarters | , U.S. |
| Parent |
|
| Website | parc |
Future Concepts division (formerlyPalo Alto Research Center,PARC andXerox PARC) is aresearch and development company inPalo Alto, California.[2][3][4] It was founded in 1969 byJacob E. "Jack" Goldman, chief scientist ofXerox Corporation, as a division ofXerox, tasked with creating computer technology-related products and hardware systems.[1][5]
Xerox PARC has been foundational to numerous revolutionary computer developments, includinglaser printing,Ethernet, the modernpersonal computer,graphical user interface (GUI) anddesktop metaphor–paradigm,object-oriented programming,ubiquitous computing,electronic paper,amorphous silicon (a-Si) applications, thecomputer mouse, andvery-large-scale integration (VLSI) forsemiconductors.[6][5]
Unlike Xerox's existing research laboratory in Rochester, New York, which focused on refining and expanding the company's copier business, Goldman's "Advanced Scientific & Systems Laboratory" aimed to pioneer new technologies in advanced physics, materials science, and computer science applications.
In 2002, Xerox spun off Palo Alto Research Center Incorporated as a wholly owned subsidiary.[7] In late April of 2023, Xerox announced the donation of the lab toSRI International.[8]
In 1969, Goldman talked withGeorge Pake, aphysicist specializing innuclear magnetic resonance andprovost ofWashington University in St. Louis, about starting a second research center for Xerox.[9]
On July 1, 1970, the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center opened.[10] Its 3,000-mile distance from Xerox headquarters inRochester, New York, afforded scientists at the new lab great freedom in their work, but it increased the difficulty of persuading management of the promise of some of their greatest achievements.
In its early years, PARC's West Coast location helped it hire many employees of the nearbySRIAugmentation Research Center (ARC) as that facility's funding fromDARPA,NASA, and theU.S. Air Force began to be reduced. By leasing land atStanford Research Park, it encouragedStanford University graduate students to be involved in PARC research projects and PARC scientists to collaborate with academic seminars and projects.
Much of PARC's early success in the computer field was under the leadership of its Computer Science Laboratory managerBob Taylor, who guided the lab as associate manager from 1970 to 1977, and as manager from 1977 to 1983.
Work at PARC since the early 1980s includes advances inubiquitous computing,aspect-oriented programming, andIPv6.[11]
After three decades as a division of Xerox, PARC was transformed in 2002[7] into an independent, wholly owned subsidiary company dedicated to developing and maturing advances in science and business concepts.
Xerox announced that it would donate the lab and its related assets toSRI International in April 2023. As part of the deal, Xerox would keep most of the patent rights inside PARC, and benefit from a preferred research agreement with SRI/PARC.[8] On January 18, 2024, SRI announced the research group from the PARC will become its Future Concepts division.[12]
PARC's developments in information technology served for a long time as standards for much of the computing industry. Many advancements made at the center were not equaled or surpassed for two decades. Xerox PARC has been the inventor and incubator of many elements of modern computing, including:
Most of these developments were included in the Alto, which added thecomputer mouse.[14] These developments unified into a single model most aspects of now-standard personal computers use. The integration of Ethernet[6] into the computer prompted the development of thePARC Universal Packet architecture, which is structured much like the modern Internet's architecture.
The PARCTab is an experimentalmobile computing device as an early experiment inubiquitous computing (UbiComp).[15] Its appearance resembles apersonal digital assistant (PDA). Its functionality depends on the user's location, by receiving location-specific information via infrared sensors from gateway nodes installed in a particular location.[16]
It has a touch screen, stylus, andhandwriting recognition. Xerox designed the similar and larger PARCPad. Both devices were developed around the same time as theApple Newton.[17]
PARC's distinguished researchers include fourTuring Award winners:Butler Lampson (1992),Alan Kay (2003),Charles P. Thacker (2009), andRobert Metcalfe (2022). TheAssociation for Computing Machinery (ACM) Software System Award recognized the Alto system in 1984,Smalltalk in 1987,InterLisp in 1992, and theremote procedure call in 1994. Lampson, Kay,Bob Taylor, and Thacker received theNational Academy of Engineering's prestigiousCharles Stark Draper Prize in 2004 for their work on the Alto.Lynn Conway was recognized by theNational Inventors Hall of Fame for her work onvery-large-scale integration (VLSI) in 2023.[18]
Xerox has been heavily criticized, particularly by business historians, for failing to properly commercialize and profitably exploit PARC's innovations.[19] Xerox management failed to see the global potential of many of PARC's inventions, but this was mostly a problem with its computing research, a relatively small part of PARC's operations.
One notable example of this is thegraphical user interface (GUI), initially developed at PARC for the Alto and then sold as theXerox 8010 Information System workstation (with office software called Star) by the Xerox Systems Development Department. It heavily influenced future system design, but was deemed a failure because Xerox only sold about 25,000 units of the computer. A small group from PARC led byDavid Liddle andCharles Irby formedMetaphor Computer Systems. Metaphor Computer Systems extended the Star desktop concept into an animated graphic and communicating office-automation model and sold the company toIBM.
Several GUI engineers left to joinApple Computer to work onLisa andMacintosh. Technologies pioneered by itsmaterials scientists such as theliquid-crystal display (LCD), some major innovations inoptical disc technology, and laser printing were actively and successfully introduced by Xerox to the business and consumer markets.[20]
Microsoft co-founderBill Gates has said that the Xerox graphical interface has notably influenced Microsoft and Apple.Apple Inc. co-founderSteve Jobs said that "Xerox could have owned the entire computer industry, could have been the IBM of the nineties, could have been the Microsoft of the nineties."[21][22]
PARC, Palo Alto Research Center ... and Ethernet
spun off by Xerox in January 2002
37°24′10″N122°08′55″W / 37.40278°N 122.14861°W /37.40278; -122.14861
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