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Overview While at AT& T Bell Laboratories, Dennis Ritchie, along with Ken Thompson, developed the UNIX computer operating system for minicomputers. He later developed the programming language called C, which has become a virtual standard in the microcomputer / workstation marketplace. Dennis Ritchie was born on Sept. 9, 1941 in Bronxville, New York. After doing undergraduate and graduate work in physics and applied mathematics at Harvard University, Ritchie joined Bell Labs in 1968. In the mid- 1960 s, Bell Labs entered into a partnership with Honeywell, General Electric, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to develop an operating system for a large computer that could handle up to a thousand simultaneous users and could run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Ritchie and Ken Thompson were involved in the design from the Bell Labs side.
Unfortunately, none of the companies had a computer that could handle the development of their program. Eventually, Bell Labs was convinced to buy a $ 100, 000 -plus PDP 11 / 20 by promises from Ritchie and Thompson that their group would develop a word processing system for the lab. In 1969, Ritchie and Thompson gave the lab their word processing program, but in the meantime managed to develop the UNIX system, which was their ultimate goal all along. UNIX was a major advance in computing, giving users features and functions unavailable before. In addition, it was simple and proved that a small operating system could be portable, machine independent, and affordable. It had a profound impact on the development of DOS, the Mac OS, Windows NT, and other operating systems.
In 1972, Ritchie created the C programming language and, in 1973, Thompson rewrote the UNIX operating system kernel in C. The enormous popularity of C in the computer industry has resulted in it becoming virtually the standard programming language in the microcomputer / workstation market. UNIX, because it is written in the C language, is more portable less machine-specific than other operating systems. In 1976, Ritchie and Thompson realized that this portability was a breakthrough. UNIX could be used on any machine and clients were no longer required to use the operating system that came prepackaged with the hardware they bought.
This was a radical change at a time when every computer and its operating system were inseparable. By 1977, more than 500 sites were running UNIX. As head of Bell Labs Computing Techniques Research department, Ritchie continued to work on operating systems during the late 1980 s and early 1990 s, including Bell Labs Plan 9. Plan 9 is Unix's answer to competition from other operating system technologies like Microsoft's Windows NT. It contains much of the technology that was left out of UNIX, such as networking and distributed computing. Despite its name, which is a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the campy cult film " Plan 9 from Outer Space, " Plan 9 is a serious endeavor that combines some of the best technology and engineering talent in the industry.
Awards and Books In 1988, Ritchie was inducted into the DATAMATION Hall of Fame in recognition for making a major contribution to information processing and its corollary technologies. In 1989, PC Magazine recognized Ritchie with its Lifetime Achievement Award for Technical Excellence. In 1994, Ritchie was a recipient of the Computer Pioneer Award from the International Electrical & Electronic Engineering (IEEE) Computer Society. In addition, he is a Bell Laboratories Fellow.
In 1971, Ritchie and Thompson wrote the UNIX Programmers Manual and in the early 1970 s Ritchie co-authored The C Programming Language with Brian Kernighan. Summary Dennis Ritchie remains at AT& T (under its new name Lucent Technologies, Inc. ) as head of the System Software Research Department, where he is working on Bell Labs latest offering, Inferno. Inferno is a mini-operating system that lets anything from workstations to set-top boxes to hand-held devices access interactive communications and entertainment services. BIBLIOGRAPHY Kopf, David " Inferno: Fiery New Network OS, or Just More Hot Air" Americas Network, June 1, 1996 " The 20 Most Important People" Byte, September 1995 Stafford, Eugene " UNIX and Security: The Influences of History" Information Systems Security, September 1, 1995 Lee, J. A. N. " IEEE Computer Society Awards Presented at 1994 Supercomputer Conference" IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, Summer 95 Patrizio, Andy " Bell Labs Hopes Plan 9 OS Gains a Cult Audience" PC Week, April 10, 1995 " UNIX" Microsoft?
Encarta, Funk & Wagnalls Corporation, 1994 " C (computer) " Microsoft? Encarta, Funk & Wagnalls Corporation, 1993 Garfinkel, Simson L. " Programs to the People" Technology Review, February 1, 1991 Machine, Bill " Lifetime Achievement" PC Magazine, January 17, 1989 Ritchie, Dennis " What Lies Ahead" Byte, January 1989 Runyan, Linda " The Datamation Hall of Fame" Datamation, September 15, 1988
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