Xerox Alto

The Xerox Alto was an experimental personal computer developed at Xerox PARC in the 1970s. Its bitmap display, mouse, and graphical interface helped establish ideas later used in commercial personal computers.

Bitmap display: A display that represents an image as a grid of individually addressable pixels. The Alto's screen could render text and graphics directly, rather than relying on fixed character cells.
Xerox PARC: A research and development center established by Xerox in Palo Alto, California, in 1970. PARC's researchers designed the Alto as part of a broader program in personal computing.
Xerox Star: A commercial office computer system introduced by Xerox in 1981 with a graphical user interface. The Star carried interface ideas developed on the Alto into a product for business users.
Xerox 8010 Star Information System: A commercial workstation system Xerox introduced in 1981 for office computing. Unlike the experimental Alto, the Star was engineered and sold as a complete commercial system.
Computer mouse: A hand-operated pointing device that moves a cursor on a computer display. The mouse let Alto users point to objects and operate graphical controls.
Alan Kay: A computer scientist whose work on personal computing and object-oriented programming shaped interactive systems. Kay's Dynabook vision helped frame the Alto as a computer for individual use.
Apple Lisa: A personal computer introduced by Apple in 1983 with a graphical interface and mouse. The Lisa developed in a computing landscape shaped by demonstrations of Alto-style interfaces.
Apple II: A mass-market personal computer introduced by Apple in 1977 with a text-based display and expansion slots. The Apple II reached buyers as a product while the Alto remained largely within research and institutional settings.
Smalltalk: An object-oriented programming language and interactive environment developed at Xerox PARC. Smalltalk systems on the Alto explored interactive windows, icons, and direct manipulation.
Butler Lampson: A computer scientist who contributed to the design of influential systems at Xerox PARC. Lampson helped shape the Alto's architecture and software environment.

Linked from 6 pages