McIlroy, Malcom (Doug) Douglas oral history, part 1 of 2
Doug McIlroy was a key figure in computing at the Bell Telephone Laboratories from the 1950s into the 1990s, most especially to the development of Unix. In this audio-recorded oral history interview, the first of two parts, McIlroy describes his family background, childhood, and early experiences and engagement with computing. He details his undergraduate experience at Cornell, and his graduate experience at MIT in the 1950s including his work on the Whirlwind II computer. McIlroy describes his summer internship experience with the Bell Telephone Laboratories, and his decision to join its Mathematics Department in 1958. He describes the state and place of computing in Bell Labs, the work of the Mathematics Department, and the development of computer science research there in the 1950s and 1960s. McIlroy recounts his direction of the Computing Techniques Research Department, its involvement in the Multics project, and his engagement with software engineering in the 1960s. He discusses Bell Labs’ withdrawal from the Multics project, and its implications for his Department, a context out of which Unix would soon emerge.
Item Details
- Date
- 2019-09-30 (Made)
- Type
- Document
- Catalogue number
- 102795421
- Organization
- Computer History Museum (Publisher)
- People
- Malcom D. McIlroy (Interviewee)
David C. Brock (Interviewer) - Category
- Transcript
- Format
- Credit line
- Computer History Museum
- Extent
- 59 p.
- Place of publication
- North America/USA/NH/Etna
- Language
- English
- Acquisition number
- X9183.2020
- Subject
- MIT, Software, Telecommunications, Whirlwind computer, UNIX, Operating Systems (Computers), Computer Science, Timesharing, Cornell University
- Archive collection
- CHM Oral History Collection
- Archive hierarchy
- Oral History collection