Wen Tsing Chow

Wen Tsing Chow (

programmable read-only memory

or PROM.

Biography

Chow was born in

Electrical Engineering from National Chiao Tung University (now Shanghai Jiao Tong University) in 1940 and an M.S. in EE from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1942.^[1]

Chow, working for the Arma Division of the

solid state

, high reliability, space-borne digital computer and established the basic systems approach and mechanization of America's ICBM guidance systems.

Chow invented and holds a fundamental

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.

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

AP-101 digital computer used in the Space Shuttle

Computer Complex.

Chow, uniquely, worked on the guidance computers and guidance systems for every major United States Air Force ICBM and NASA crewed 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.

In 2004, the United States Air Force posthumously awarded Mr. Chow one of their highest awards, the Air Force Space and Missiles Pioneers Award, previously held by only 30 individuals. Chow is one of only a handful of civilians to receive this award and along with John von Neumann, one of only two computer scientists so honored.

References

^ "Chinese American Hero: Wen Tsing Chow". AsianWeek. July 5, 2009. Retrieved September 11, 2012.

External links

[1] "Chinese American Hero: Wen Tsing Chow". AsianWeek. July 5, 2009. Retrieved September 11, 2012.

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