Wen Tsing Chow (周文俊; pinyin: Zhōu Wénjùn), (1918 - 2001), was a Chinese-American missile guidance scientist and a digital computer pioneer. Pinyin is a system of romanization (phonemic notation and transcription to Roman script) for Standard Mandarin, where pin means spell and yin means sound. The most common variant of pinyin in use is called Hanyu Pinyin (Simplified Chinese: , Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: HànyÇ” PÄ«nyÄ«n), also known as scheme... 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... A guided bomb strikes an underground facility Missile guidance technologies of missile systems use a variety of methods to guide a missile to its intended target. ... ...

He received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Shanghai Jiaotong University in 1940 and an M.S. in EE from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1942. Electrical Engineers design power systems… … and complex electronic circuits. ... Shanghai Jiao Tong University, (SJTU, 上海交通大學), abbreviated Jiao Da (交大), is one of the leading universities in China. ... EE may mean: electrical engineering (called double-E in slang) the video game Empire Earth the abbreviation for an Engineers degree in electrical engineering (Electrical Engineer) the ISO country code for Estonia the English Electric Company in the United Kingdom the Extended Essay, a component of the International Baccalaureate... The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, is a private research university located in the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Its mission and culture are guided by an emphasis on teaching and research grounded in practical applications of science and technology. ...

Mr. Chow, working for the Arma Division of the American Bosch Arma Corporation, pioneered the use of digital computers in missile, satellite and spacecraft guidance systems, leading the design of the United States Air Force Atlas E/F ICBM (Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile) all-inertial guidance system and guidance computer, the first production airborne digital computer. Mr. Chow personally formulated the design of the first all solid state, high reliability, space-borne digital computer and established the basic systems approach and mechanization of America's ICBM guidance systems. The United States Air Force (USAF) is the aerospace branch of the United States armed forces and one of the seven uniformed services. ... Atlas missile launch from Cape Canaveral in 1957 The Atlas is a venerable line of space launch vehicles originally built by the Convair Division of General Dynamics, and now Lockheed Martin. ... A Minuteman III missile soars after a test launch. ... In electronics, solid state circuits are those that do not contain vacuum tubes. ...

Mr. Chow invented and holds a fundamental patent on what is now commonly known as programmable read-only memory or PROM. PROM, in the late 1950s called a "constants storage matrix," was invented for the Atlas E/F ICBM airborne digital computer. A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to a person for a fixed period of time in exchange for the regulated, public disclosure of certain details of a device, method, process or composition of matter (substance) (known as an invention) which is new, inventive, and... D23128C PROM on the board of ZX Spectrum A programmable read-only memory (PROM) or field programmable read-only memory (FPROM) is a form of digital memory where the setting of each bit is locked by a fuse or antifuse. ...

He would continue working throughout the 1960s and early 1970s to develop and advance missile and spacecraft digital computers and guidance systems technology beyond the state of the art - working at the Aerospace Corporation in the Gemini and Minuteman programs and at IBM in the B-1, B-52, Saturn V and Skylab programs, and of course, in the development of the AP-101 digital computer used in the Space Shuttle Computer Complex. The Aerospace Corporation is a nonprofit engineering and science organization headquartered in El Segundo, California. ... Project Gemini insignia Project Gemini was the second human spaceflight program in which the United States of America sent humans into space, between Projects Mercury and Apollo, during the years 1963-1966. ... The LGM-30 Minuteman is a United States nuclear missile, a land-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). ... now. ... The Boeing IDS (formerly Rockwell) B-1B Lancer is a long-range strategic bomber in service with the USAF. Together with the B-52 Stratofortress, it is the backbone of the United Statess long-range bomber force. ... B-52 can refer to the following: The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress strategic bomber aircraft A hairstyle popular in the 1950s and 1960s, named after the aircraft A rock band, The B-52s, named after the hairstyle A cocktail This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which... The SA-9 (Saturn I Block II), the eighth Saturn I flight, lifted off on February 16, 1965. ... Drawing of Skylab with components labelled Skylab was the first space station the United States launched into orbit. ... The IBM AP-101 is an avionics computer, used most notably in the U.S. Space Shuttle, but also in the B-52 and F-15, among others. ... This article is about the NASA Space Shuttle vehicle. ...

Mr. Chow, uniquely, worked on the guidance computers and guidance systems for every major United States Air Force ICBM and NASA manned space program from the very beginning with the Atlas, through Titan, Gemini, Saturn, and Skylab, to missiles and spacecraft still in service today, Minuteman and the Space Shuttle. NASA logo Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from an article revision dated 2005-09-01, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ... Titan was a family of U.S. expendable rockets used between 1959 and 2005. ...

In 2004, the United States Air Force posthumously awarded Mr. Chow one of their highest awards, the Air Force Space and Missiles Pioneers Award, held by only 30 individuals. Mr. Chow is one of only a handful of civilians to receive this award and along with Dr. John von Neumann, one of only two computer scientists so honored. 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... John von Neumann in the 1940s. ...

External links

• Air Force Space and Missiles Pioneer Citation
• U. S. Patent 3,028,659 for key PROM technology

See also

• PROM
• Saturn V
• AP-101