XEROX PARC

in full Xerox Corporation Palo Alto Research Center division established in 1970 by Xerox Corporation in Palo Alto, California, U.S., to explore new information technologies that were not necessarily related to the company's core photocopier business. Many innovations in computer design were developed by PARC researchers, including the Alto, the first personal computer; the graphical user interface; the laser printer; and Ethernet, a ubiquitous computer networking technology. Michael Aaron Dennis Additional reading An excellent source on PARC's history is Michael Hiltzick, Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age (1999).