HALL OF FAME / inventor profile

An Wang
Born Feb 7 1920 - Died Mar 24 1990

Pulse Transfer Controlling Device
Magnetic Core Memory
Patent Number(s) 2,708,722

Inducted 1988


An Wang made many notable contributions to the advancement of computer technology, including the magnetic pulse controlling device, the principle upon which magnetic core memory is based.

In 1965 he introduced a desktop computer named LOCI. This forerunner of the Wang electronic desk calculators used a keyboard resembling that of an adding machine but offered the user the unique feature of generating logarithms with a single keystroke. Every year since the production of the first LOCI, Wang and Wang Labs engineers have conceived and designed electronic instruments and systems, maintaining a steady progression of innovations in the office automation and information processing field.

Invention Impact

Wang’s pulse transfer controlling device allowed the magnetic field of the cores to control the switching of current in electromagnetic systems.  Wang’s other main invention, the write-after-read cycle, also contributed to the overall development of magnetic core memory.

Inventor Bio

Born in Shanghai, China, Wang came to the United States in 1945. He received his B.S. from Chiao Tung University in Shanghai in 1940 and his Ph.D. in applied physics from Harvard University in 1948. He did postdoctoral work at the Harvard Computation Laboratory. He founded Wang Laboratories in 1951 to develop specialty electronic devices. At his death, he was chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Wang Laboratories, Inc.

Wang held more than 35 patents relating to computer technology. Wang was a member of the Board of Directors of the Bank of Boston and the Massachusetts Board of Regents, was president and a trustee of the Wang Institute of Graduate Studies, and was a trustee of Northeastern University and the Museum of Science of Boston.


© 2002 National Inventors Hall of Fame