C. Gordon Bell, the computer scientist whose work was key to the development of PCs, has died. He was 89.
A graduate of MIT, Bell joined Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in 1960, and in the following decade his designs contributed to the development of what were known at the time as “mini computers.”
At the time, compute power was only accessible via large, multi-million dollar mainframe machines developed by the likes of IBM and run by specialist teams. But in 1965, Bell and his colleagues launched the PDP-8, a 12-bit computer that cost $18,000.
Marketed to scientists and engineers who could operate the machines themselves as part of their work, the PDP-8 is seen as the first commercially successful mini computer, having sold over 50,000 units.
After leaving DEC, Bell worked at several startups, and as a policy advisor to the US government. He was part of the National Science Foundation and looked at ways to network supercomputers, resulting in the creation of the National Research and Education Network, a precursor to the Internet.
He later advised Microsoft on the formation of its research division, and joined Microsoft Research full-time in 1995.
Speaking to the New York Times, David Cutler, a senior technical fellow at the Microsoft Research Lab, who worked with Bell at Microsoft and DEC, said: “His main contribution was his vision of the future.”
He added: “He always had a vision of where computing was going to go. He helped make computing much more widespread and more personal.”
Bell died at his home in Coronado, California. The cause of death was pneumonia, his family said in a statement.