Wesley A. Clark

Wesley Allison Clark ( * 1927 in New Haven, Connecticut) is an American computer engineer.

Clark grew up in Northern California, graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a Bachelor 's degree in 1947 and in 1955 a master's degree in electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

With Charles Molnar 1961, he developed the LINC computer ( Laboratory for Instrument Computer ) at the Lincoln Laboratory at MIT. He was later produced by DEC ( 1964 ) and Spear Inc.. At MIT, they were used as a laboratory computer - her first assignment was in 1962 at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda (Maryland) in neurological experiments with cats. You were around the $ 40,000 relatively cheap and had a screen and a keyboard. Until 1969 about 50 copies were sold. The computer had a word length of 12 bits and 1 kB of memory ( later 2 kB) and external memory in the form of a magnetic tape ( LINCtape ) He is considered the one of the first mini-computer ( other early Minis were the PDP - 1 of 1959) and as this forerunner of the personal computer.

He was also involved in the development of the Arpanet, which is considered the forerunner of the Internet. In 1967, he struck Larry Roberts prior to use Interface Message Processor. From 1964 to 1972 he worked ( after the promotion of the LINC expired at MIT, he was brought there by George E. Pake ) at Washington University, where he was a consultant thereafter. With his wife, Maxine Rockoff, he founded Clark, Rockoff and Associates in Brooklyn.

His eldest son, Douglas Clark is a professor of computer science at Princeton University. In 1981 he received the Eckert - Mauchly Award, and he was a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1999.

Writings

  • Clark The LINC what early and small, in Adele Goldberg A history of personal workstations, ACM Press, 1988, pp. 347-394
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