Computing, IT & AI

Sun Microsystems co-founded

1982 CEVinod Khosla, with Andy Bechtolsheim, Scott McNealy and Bill JoySun Microsystems, 1982-2010Diaspora (work abroad)

1982

The workstation and server company behind SPARC, NFS and Java, co-founded by IIT Delhi graduate Vinod Khosla.

Dated: 1982
As scholars put it: 1982 CE
Originator: Vinod Khosla, with Andy Bechtolsheim, Scott McNealy and Bill Joy
Source text: Sun Microsystems, 1982-2010
Region: Diaspora (work abroad)
Discipline: Computing, IT & AI
Evidence: Documented
Confidence: High
Verification: Verified-web

Background

Vinod Khosla studied at IIT Delhi, then at Carnegie Mellon and Stanford. In 1982 he co-founded Sun Microsystems and was its first chairman and CEO. Sun built networked Unix workstations, its own SPARC processors, and later the Java platform.

Significance

Sun shaped Unix, RISC processors, network computing and Java, which runs on billions of devices. Khosla later became one of Silicon Valley's most influential venture investors.

Fair to say

A company with several co-founders; the key technologies were developed by many engineers.

Path to modern innovation

Java and NFS remain in wide use.

Global impact

The Java programming language (1995).
The Network File System (NFS).