The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) is a public research university founded in 1868. Its electrical engineering and computer science department has been one of the most influential in computing history, developing key technologies and educating generations of pioneers.
BSD Unix
Berkeley’s most significant computing contribution was the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), a version of Unix developed in the 1970s and 1980s. When Ken Thompson visited Berkeley on sabbatical in 1975-1976, he helped install Unix on the university’s PDP-11[1].
Berkeley students and faculty, led by Bill Joy, extended Unix substantially, adding:
- Networking: TCP/IP implementation that became the internet standard
- The vi editor: Still widely used today
- The C shell: An influential command-line interface
- Virtual memory: Modern memory management techniques
BSD became one of the two major Unix lineages (alongside AT&T System V) and directly influenced macOS, iOS, FreeBSD, and many other systems.
Notable Alumni and Faculty
Berkeley has educated and employed numerous computing pioneers:
- Ken Thompson (BS 1965, MS 1966) - Co-creator of Unix
- Eric Schmidt (MS 1979, PhD 1982) - Former Google/Alphabet CEO
- Steve Wozniak - Apple co-founder (attended but did not graduate)
- Eric Allman - Creator of sendmail
- Bill Joy (MS 1979) - Co-founder of Sun Microsystems, BSD developer
RISC Architecture
In the 1980s, Berkeley researchers led by David Patterson developed RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) architecture, which influenced processor design for decades. The RISC-V open instruction set architecture continues this tradition.
Sources
- Wikipedia. “Berkeley Software Distribution.” History of BSD Unix at Berkeley.