The Alto came out of Xerox's original Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), known for giving its research groups substantial freedom and generous funding, and was one of the most innovative computers ever designed. Often called the first personal computer or workstation, it used bit-mapped graphics, a mouse, menus, icons and other features that would prove to be the basic technologies of today's PCs. The designers also created the Ethernet local area networking protocol to link Altos within PARC.
Alto information at bitsavers.org
| Parallel Developments |
| Xerox Alto - Xerox Dorado - Three Rivers PERQ - ETH Lilith |
| Legacy "trunk" | ||
| Preceded by Evans & Sutherland Projects, Stanford AI Labs Projects, Reactive Engine, NLS and FLEX |
Xerox Alto | Followed by X Window System and Smalltalk |
| Word 2008 Branch | ||
| Preceded by --- |
Xerox Alto | Followed by Bravo |
| Word 2008 Branch | ||
| Preceded by --- |
Xerox Alto | Followed by BravoX |
| Sil Branch | ||
| Preceded by --- |
Xerox Alto | Followed by Sil |
| Draw Branch | ||
| Preceded by --- |
Xerox Alto | Followed by Draw |
| Photoshop Branch | ||
| Preceded by --- |
Xerox Alto | Followed by Flyer |
| Photoshop Branch | ||
| Preceded by --- |
Xerox Alto | Followed by Markup |
| PDF/RIA Branch | ||
| Preceded by --- |
Xerox Alto | Followed by Press |
| TIB/InConcert Branch | ||
| Preceded by --- |
Xerox Alto | Followed by Office Talk |
| ANSI Common Lisp Branch | ||
| Influenced by Interlisp |
Xerox Alto | Influenced --- |