Mark Dean (1956 – present) – Color monitor, Gigahertz chip, IBM PC
Among the 12 people working at IBM to develop the first PC, Mark Dean was one of them. Back then, the P.C. was connected to a monochrome monitor, and the computer had very limited processing power. Dean began working for IBM in the 1980s as Chief Engineer. In addition to helping develop the IBM PC, he was also involved in creating the first color monitor. Furthermore, he led the team that created the first gigahertz chip around 1999-2000.
It’s hard to believe that it was only about 20 years ago. Now we have supercomputers and artificial intelligence with blazing processing speeds to handle even the most complicated algorithms in split seconds. As a co-creator of the personal computer, Mark Dean holds three out of nine patents for the invention. In 1995, he became the first African American IBM Fellow.