Earlier this week, it was time for the Association for Computing Machinery, ACM, to announce the winner of the 2009 Turing Award, one of the more prestigious prices in the computing industry. The award was awarded to Charles P. Thacker; a name you might not recognise, but certainly one that has influenced the world of computing a great deal.
Thacker has an impressive track record in the computing industry, with his most famous work being the Xerox Alto machine, the computer that would set the standard for what the personal computer would look like and how it would work. He worked at the Computer Systems Laboratory at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center as the leader of the Alto project.
The Alto was the first machine to introduce the graphical user interface and the desktop metaphor; both concepts we still use every day. It served as the major influence for the original Macintosh (let’s face it, Apple more or less copied it outright – with permission from Xerox!), and thus, for the entire industry. Many innovative applications were written for the Alto, including the first WYSIWYG document programs. The Alto also ran the first few versions of the Smalltalk environment.
The Alto also featured something else Thacker is partially responsible for: an ethernet port. Thacker co-invented ethernet together with Robert Metcalfe, David Boggs, and Butler Lampson, and the LAN technology is now by far the most popular one. At PARC, Thacker also contributed to the development of the first laser printer.
He then went on to work at DEC, where he co-developed the first multiprocessor workstation, the DEC Firefly. He joined Microsoft in 1997, for whom he set up a research lab in Cambridge, UK, and designed the first tablet PC hardware.
From all this it is easy to conclude that Thacker deserves the Turing Award, which is accompanied by USD 250000. “Charles Thacker’s contributions have earned him a reputation as one of the most distinguished computer systems engineers in the history of the field,” said ACM President Professor Dame Wendy Hall, “His enduring achievements – from his initial innovations on the PC to his leadership in hardware development of the multiprocessor workstation to his role in developing the tablet PC – have profoundly affected the course of modern computing.”
Thacker finds himself in prestigious company – the Turing Award has previously been awarded to people like Alan Kay, Douglas Engelbart, and Ivan Sutherland.
Tom: Turing Award, one of the more prestigious prices.
That’s news! Please name an equally or more prestigious price in the field of computers.
IOCCC?
Seriously, he says the “more prestigious”, this means more prestigious than the last prize mentioned.
Which if I remember correctly is the Nobel Peace Prize (to be awarded to Linux Torvalds).
I think we can all agree with Thom.
Edited 2010-03-12 03:36 UTC
Now, before I begin, his work was clearly good and forward thinking and I am sure he had a great influence on modern computing… but…
this award is for
“an individual selected for contributions of a technical nature made to the computing community. The contributions should be of lasting and major technical importance to the computer field”
How many more winners are going to be from the PARC/MIT/Berkley era of computing?
I am sure we have had some technical innovation since that ‘golden age’ why not celebrate that?
Because for more recent innovations it’s not as obvious whether or not they’re going to have a lasting impact or be something that’s gone in a few years. This is much the same reason why Nobel prizes are more often than not awarded decades after the discovery they’re being awarded for.
What about Linus Torvold? Has he not had a lasting effect?
Robert M. McCool (created apache web server) Has he not had a lasting effect?
How about the chaps that worked on and designed USB? This effectively unified the peripheral industry.
These are ‘modern era’ creations/creators all created in the 90s which have clearly had a long term effect on the industry as a whole.
Why are these people not honoured?
Because you can only award the Turing Award once a year?
How about Bill Gates? Has he not had a lasting effect?
Jokes aside, I think the merits of Torvalds are more in organizing and management of the kernel community, not in technological breakthroughs, algorithms or math, and so forth. If you look at the past recipients, most of them are academics. Which I think is a good thing.
Edited 2010-03-12 03:50 UTC
Read “Dealers of Lightening” [1] and tell me he didn’t deserve this award.
[1] http://www.amazon.com/Dealers-Lightning-Xerox-PARC-Computer/dp/0887…
It’s an excellent book by the way.