Apple Advanced Technology Group

The Advanced Technology Group (ATG) was a corporate research laboratory at <a href="/facts/Apple_Inc./oTJYta3k">Apple Computer</a> from 1986 to 1997. ATG was an evolution of Apple's Education Research Group (ERG) and was started by <a href="/facts/Larry_Tesler/0N6fCKhH">Larry Tesler</a> in October 1986 to study long-term research into future technologies that were beyond the time frame or organizational scope of any individual product group. Over the next decade, it was led by <a href="/facts/David_Nagel/e1dGzrNC">David Nagel</a>, Richard LeFaivre, and <a href="/facts/Donald_Norman/QFfnA2m4">Donald Norman</a>. It was known as Apple Research Labs during Norman's tenure as VP of the organization. <a href="/facts/Steve_Jobs/fQpja1hx">Steve Jobs</a> closed the group when he returned to Apple in 1997.
ATG had research efforts in both hardware and software, with groups focused on such areas as Human-Computer Interaction, Speech Recognition (by <a href="/facts/Kai-Fu_Lee/vXe37zYv">Kai-Fu Lee</a>), Educational Technology, Networking, Information Access, Distributed Operating systems, Collaborative Computing, Computer Graphics, and <a href="/facts/Language/action_perspective/UWeGyenp">Language/action perspective</a>. Many of these efforts are described in a special issue of the ACM <a href="/facts/SIGCHI_Bulletin/McAGNovb">SIGCHI Bulletin</a> which provided a retrospective of the ATG work after the lab was shut down. ATG was also home to four Apple Fellows: <a href="/facts/Al_Alcorn/zp7HVpjY">Al Alcorn</a>, object-oriented software pioneer; <a href="/facts/Alan_Kay/opDYqrcm">Alan Kay</a>; <a href="/facts/Bill_Atkinson/AnN2LdVc">Bill Atkinson</a>; <a href="/facts/Donald_Norman/QFfnA2m4">Donald Norman</a>; and laser printer inventor <a href="/facts/Gary_Starkweather/z0tFVjQC">Gary Starkweather</a>. Further, ATG funded university research and, starting in 1992, held an annual design competition for teams of students.
Apple's ATG was the birthplace of Color <a href="/facts/QuickDraw/a3QlTctp">QuickDraw</a>, <a href="/facts/QuickTime/rA3GQp2j">QuickTime</a>, <a href="/facts/QuickTime_VR/LsU0PKKk">QuickTime VR</a>, <a href="/facts/QuickDraw_3D/nrrP3D4b">QuickDraw 3D</a>, <a href="/facts/QuickRing/pznMxxv2">QuickRing</a>, <a href="/facts/3DMF/nrrP3D4b">3DMF</a> the 3D metafile graphics format, <a href="/facts/ColorSync/7uDAhFUz">ColorSync</a>, <a href="/facts/HyperCard/v9GQF9K2">HyperCard</a>, <a href="/facts/Apple_events/dkUzzmlE">Apple events</a>, <a href="/facts/SK8_(programming_language)/m4DunhV1">SK8</a>, <a href="/facts/AppleScript/cc3rc4wD">AppleScript</a>, Apple's <a href="/facts/PlainTalk/91Y9lBI9">PlainTalk</a> <a href="/facts/Speech_recognition/z7S7Pgk6">speech recognition</a> software, the <a href="/facts/1986_M%C3%B6bius_ARM_based_computer_prototype/66tIrRs2">1986 Möbius ARM based computer prototype</a>, Apple Data Detectors, the V-Twin software for indexing, storing, and searching text documents, Macintalk Pro <a href="/facts/Speech_synthesis/ceTczTv9">Speech Synthesis</a>, the <a href="/facts/Newton_OS/3sopdP4Q">Newton</a> <a href="/facts/Handwriting_recognition/RgdyWtDQ">handwriting recognizer</a>, the component software technology leading to <a href="/facts/OpenDoc/aXv4oj2N">OpenDoc</a>, <a href="/facts/Meta_Content_Framework/oaYFXIqf">MCF</a>, <a href="/facts/HotSauce/XKb03SJk">HotSauce</a>, <a href="/facts/Squeak/eCP11lRC">Squeak</a>, and the children's programming environment <a href="/facts/Stagecast_Creator/rQA1tvhK">Cocoa</a> (a trademark Apple later reused for its otherwise unrelated <a href="/facts/Cocoa_(API)/p10p5aFI">Cocoa application frameworks</a>).

Apple Advanced Technology Group open-in-new

Apple Advanced Technology Group