Computer Innovators –Three pioneers have made landmark breakthroughs in computers and software: –Chester (Gordon) Bell –David Packard –Bill Gates

Chester (Gordon) Bell He received a B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1956 and Bell knew two other MIT computer engineers named Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson and decided to start their own company, Digital Equipment Corporation.

Chester (Gordon) Bell Bell was asked to join DEC as an engineer in 1960, where he began work on the early Program Data Processor (PDP) minicomputers. The PDPs contributed to Bell becoming an industry-recognized expert on minicomputers and interactive computing. In 1972, His 32-bit VAX minicomputers went on to become some of the most successful computers ever created and completely changed the face of the minicomputer industry.

David Packard From 1936 to 1938, Packard was an engineer with the General Electric Co. in Schenectady, N.Y. Packard and William Hewlett both launched their business partnership on New Year's Day “To be useful an invention must not only fill a need, it must be an economic al and efficient solution to that need.”

David Packard The pair released their first product, a sound oscillator Packard named the HP200B. Packard secured their first order- 8 of the HP200Bs at $72 a piece- commissioned by the Walt Disney Studios for use in completing the soundtrack to the Disney masterpiece "Fantasia".

 Packard created a management, employment system unique in American industry Known as," The HP Way“.  The Packard management system became widely emulated throughout the US, it established many of the corporate practices from profit sharing to maternity leaves, catastrophic illness coverage and job protection.  The company has grown to become Silicon Valley's largest employer with 100,000 workers and more than $31 billion in revenues last year.

In 1973, Gates entered Harvard University as a freshman, Gates developed a version of the programming language BASIC for the first microcomputer - the MITS Altair.... WILLIAM (BILL) H. GATES... he discovered his interest in software and began programming computers at age 13. In his junior year, Gates left Harvard to devote his energies to Microsoft, a company he had begun in 1975 with his childhood friend Paul Allen. They began developing software for personal computers. Microsoft had revenues of US$36.84 billion for the fiscal year ending June 2004, and employs more than 55,000 people in 85 countries and regions. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has committed more than $3.2 billion to organizations working in global health; more than $2 billion to improve learning opportunities, including the Gates Library Initiative to bring computers, Internet Access and training to public libraries in low-income communities in the United States and Canada

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