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Alan Kotok

By orrje

  • Kotok enrolls at MIT

    Kotok enrolls at MIT
    After skipping two grades in high school, Kotok enrolls at MIT at the age of 16.

  • Tech Model Railroad Club (TMRC)

    Tech Model Railroad Club (TMRC)
    Shorter after enrolling at MIT, Kotok joins the TRMC. From this group, Bob Saunders, Peter Samson, Bob Wagner, and Kotok would establish the foundation for hacker culture.

  • IBM 704 - Chess

    IBM 704 - Chess
    Taking over for MIT professor John McCarthy, Kotok and classmates take over McCarthy's IBM 704 chess-playing program

  • Spacewar!

    Spacewar!
    First realized on the PDP-1, Kotok and associates contributed to one of the earliest interactive computer video games, Spacewar! Kotok and Saunders are credited with building the game controllers that allowed two people to play side by side.

  • B.S.E.E

    B.S.E.E
    Kotok graduates from MIT with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (B.S.E.E).

  • Fortran Compiler - PDP - 4

    Fortran Compiler - PDP - 4
    Kotok began writing a Fortran compiler for the PDP-4, an imperative program language for numeric and scientific computation

  • First Time-Sharing CPU

    First Time-Sharing CPU
    As an assistant logic designer, Kotok developed the first-time sharing computer, the PDP-6. In computing, time-sharing is sharing computer resources among many users simultaneously utilizing multiprogramming and multi-tasking.

  • M.S.E.E

    M.S.E.E
    Kotok graduates from MIT with a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering

  • Lead architect and designer

    Lead architect and designer
    Kotok becomes the principal architect and designer for several generations of the PDP-10, DECsystem-10, and DECSYSTEM-20

  • Shaping the Future

    Shaping the Future
    Interested in expanding his areas of expertise from engineering to teaching and business, and following a suggestion by former classmate Elwyn Berlekamp, Kotok teaches logic design at the University of California, Berkley

  • Clark University

    Clark University
    Kotok graduates from Clark University with a master's degree in business administration

  • VAX 8600

    VAX 8600
    Kotok helped invent the VAX 8600, the highest-performance computer in Digital's history, operating up to 4.2 faster than the standard time.

  • World Wide Web Consortium

    World Wide Web Consortium
    While at Digital, Kotok recognized the Web's potential and helped found the World Wide Web Consortium to promote open standards and coordinate web development

  • Technological Visionary

    Technological Visionary
    As technical director of Digital's Corporate Strategy Group, Kotok was instrumental in the Internet Business Group and creating the AltaVista Search engine, the Internet firewall, the Web portal, the webcast, and live election returns

  • W3C Associate Chairman

    W3C Associate Chairman
    Kotok joins the W3C as associate chairman (MIT). His roles included the management of contractual relations with W3C hosts and member organizations, coordinating the worldwide operations of W3C systems and Web teams to include servicing millions of web pages and resources on the W3C website, and maintaining the host site at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory

  • Patent Contributor

    Patent Contributor
    As associate chairman, Kotok significantly contributed to the W3C Patent Policy and chaired Patent Advisory Groups, including HTML