Charles P. (Chuck) Thacker is a distinguished engineer and computer pioneer.

Thacker worked in the 1970s and 1980s at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), where he served as project leader of the Alto personal computer system, was co-inventor of the Ethernet LAN, and contributed to many other projects, including the first laser printer. 1970 was a common year starting on Thursday. ... 1980 is a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) was a flagship research division of the Xerox Corporation, based in Palo Alto, California, USA, which essentially created the modern personal computer paper paradigm. ... The word alto may refer to: an experimental personal computer designed by Xerox at the Palo Alto Research Center: see Alto (computer). ... Ethernet (this name comes from the physical concept of ether) is a frame-based computer networking technology for local area networks (LANs). ... Lan can stand for several things: A local area network Lan (airline) formerly LanChile Lan Peru Lan Mandragoran, a fictional character in the Wheel of Time series. ... A laser printer is a common type of computer printer that produces good quality printing, and is able to produce text and graphics. ...

In 1983, Thacker was a founder of the Systems Research Center (SRC) at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), and in 1997, he joined Microsoft Research to help establish Microsoft's research lab in Cambridge, United Kingdom. 1983 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Categories: Stub ... 1997 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT) headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA, was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. ... The city of Cambridge is an old English university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire. ...

After returning to the United States, Thacker designed the hardware for Microsoft's Tablet PC, based on his experience with the "interim Dynabook" at PARC, and later the Lectrice, a pen-based hand-held computer at DEC SRC. Hardware comprises all of the physical parts of a computer, as distinguished from the data it contains or operates on, and the software that provides instructions for the hardware to accomplish tasks. ... Toshiba Portege 3500 tablet PC, in tablet configuration. ... The Dynabook was a conceptual system proposed by Xerox PARC in the late 60s and early 70s. ...

In 2004, he won the Charles Stark Draper Prize together with Alan C. Kay, Butler W. Lampson, and Robert W. Taylor. 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Charles Stark Draper Prize is awarded by the National Academy of Engineering for the advancement of engineering and the education of the public about engineering. ... Alan Kay is an American computer scientist. ... Butler W. Lampson is a computer scientist, considered to be one of the most significant in the history of the field. ... Robert Taylor was director of ARPAs Information Processing Techniques Office (1965-69), founder and associate manager of Xerox PARC Computer Science Laboratory (CSL) (1970-77), manager of Xerox PARC CSL (1977-83), founder and manager of Digital Equipment Corporations Systems Research Center (1983-96). ...

Thacker holds an honorary doctorate from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and is a Distinguished Engineer at Microsoft. An Honorary degree (Latin: honoris causa ad gradum) is a degree awarded to someone by an institution that he or she may have never attended, it may be a bachelors, masters or doctorate degree - however, the latter is most common. ... ETH Zurich (from its German name Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, ETHZ) is the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, Switzerland. ...