Computing · 1972

C

A portable systems language close to the machine.

Dennis Ritchie created C to rewrite Unix, which made the operating system portable across hardware. C and its descendants still run operating system kernels, databases and embedded devices worldwide.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 1

Unix 1969

What it led to 4

GNU Project 1983
C++ 1985
Python 1991
CUDA 2007

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Computation per constant dollar, 1850-2006 Latest: 7.3B million units of computer power per 2006 $ (2003) Source: Nordhaus 2007, Two Centuries of Productivity Growth in Computing, J. Econ. Hist. 67(1), Table 6

Transistors per microprocessor Latest: 58.2B transistors (2021) Source: Our World in Data