#9: Mark Dean – IBM Personal Computer Components
Mark Dean was a key architect of the original IBM PC. He holds three of the machine’s nine original patents. His most famous contribution was the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, the internal system that allowed peripherals like printers and disk drives to connect to the computer. He later helped develop the color PC monitor and the world’s first gigahertz chip. In 1996, he became the first Black person ever named an IBM Fellow, the company’s highest technical honor. Now a professor, he remains a living link to the birth of the digital age.
