Computer Dictionary of Information Technology

Project MAC

A project suggested by J C R Licklider; its founding director was MIT Prof. Robert M Fano. MAC stood for Multiple Access Computers on the 5th floor of Tech Square, and Man and Computer on the 9th floor. The major efforts were Corbato's Multics development and Marvin Minsky's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. In 1963 Project MAC hosted a summer study, which brought many well-known computer scientists to Cambridge to use CTSS and to discuss the future of computing.

Funding for Project MAC was provided by the Information Processing Techniques Office of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the US Department of Defense.

See also Early PL/I, MacLisp, MACSYMA, MDL, Multipop-68, OCAL.