An Wang and High-Tech Electronics

The career of An Wang and the rise of high-technology electronics went hand in hand. A Chinese national, Wang completed his doctorate in applied physics at Harvard University in 1948 and remained there as a research assistant, where he was fortunate to work with Howard Aiken, a pioneer in the development of computers. Wang created, and then in 1949 patented, the pulse transfer controlling device, an invention that advanced computer core memory. In 1951, thinking the infant computer industry showed enormous potential, he left Harvard and set up his own firm, Wang Laboratories.

Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s Wang Laboratories became known as an aggressive firm on the cutting edge of electronics technology; it was Wang, for example, that installed the first electronic Scoreboard at Shea Stadium. The firm's first major product line was in the desktop-calculator business: in 1965 it introduced LOCI, an electronic desktop calculator....

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