Where the avant-garde meets the rear guard.
Once one of the
GreatResearchLabs, the most important research laboratory for
ThePhoneCompany (AT&T) when it was a monopoly, now part of Lucent Technologies.
Historically, the source of much important research, including
InformationTheory due to
ClaudeShannon, the transistor, high-temperature superconductors, wireless communications, and lots more.
It was one of the best
GeekCentrals in the world.
This is where the
InventorsOfUnix created
CeeLanguage and the
UnixOperatingSystem, among other things, and later
PlanNineFromBellLabs and
InfernoOs.
Also the place where
BjarneStroustrup invented
CeePlusPlus.
The golden age of
BellLabs seems to be over. With Lucent's troubles during the telecom meltdown, researchers have been leaving at a shocking pace. The spin off of Avaya and the microelectronics division further fragmented what remained after AT&T Labs and Bellcore were split off.
BrianKernighan joined the faculty at Princeton, though at
BellLabs once a week and during the summers.
KenThompson left at the end of November 2001(?). The mood among those remaining (of which I'm currently one) is that it's the end of an era.
See
http://www.bell-labs.com/history/
and
http://www.bell-labs.com/topic/alumni/
And listen to the
BellLabs song:
http://doc.cat-v.org/bell_labs/innovations_song/
A collection of interesting papers authored at Bell Labs can be found at
http://doc.cat-v.org/bell_labs/