User:Dutch Taleb/sandbox
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Xerox Alto is the first computer designed from its inception to support an operating system based on a graphical user interface (GUI), later using the desktop metaphor.[7][8] The first machines were introduced on 1 March 1973,[9] a decade before mass-market GUI machines became available.
Developer | Xerox PARC |
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Manufacturer | Xerox PARC |
Release date | March 1, 1973; 51 years ago (1973-03-01) |
Introductory price | US$32,000 in 1979 (equivalent to $134,338 in 2023)[1][2] |
Units shipped | Alto I: 120 Alto II: 2,000[3] |
Media | 2.5 MB one-platter cartridge[4] |
Operating system | Alto Executive (Exec) |
CPU | TTL-based, with the ALU built around four 74181 MSI chips. It has user programmable microcode, uses big-endian format and a CPU clock of 5.88 MHz[5][4] |
Memory | 96[6]-512 kB (128 kB for 4000 USD)[4] |
Display | 606×808 pixels[4] |
Input | Keyboard, 3-button mouse, 5-key chorded keyboard |
Connectivity | Ethernet |
Related | Xerox Star; Apple Lisa, Macintosh |
The Alto is contained in a relatively small cabinet and uses a custom central processing unit (CPU) built from multiple SSI and MSI integrated circuits. Each machine cost tens of thousands of dollars despite its status as a personal computer. Only small numbers were built initially, but by the late 1970s, about 1,000 were in use at various Xerox laboratories, and about another 500 in several universities. Total production was about 2,000 systems.
The Alto became well known in Silicon Valley and its GUI was increasingly seen as the future of computing. In 1979, Steve Jobs arranged a visit to Xerox PARC, during which Apple Computer personnel would receive demonstrations of Xerox technology in exchange for Xerox being able to purchase stock options in Apple.[10] After two visits to see the Alto, Apple engineers used the concepts to introduce the Apple Lisa and Macintosh systems.
Xerox eventually commercialized a heavily modified version of the Alto concepts as the Xerox Star, first introduced in 1981. A complete office system including several workstations, storage and a laser printer cost as much as $100,000, and like the Alto, the Star had little direct impact on the market.