David C. Evans

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For other persons of the same name, see David Evans.

David C. Evans (1924-1998) was the founder of the computer science department at University of Utah and co-founder (with Ivan Sutherland) of Evans & Sutherland, a computer firm which is known as a pioneer in the domain of Computer-generated imagery.

Evans first worked at the Bendix aviation electronics company, where he helped devise in 1956 what some describe as an early personal computer which ran on an interpretive operating system. The Bendix G-15 was a bulky unit about the size of a two door refrigerator.

Evans also worked on the GENIE multi-user timesharing system while at the University of California, Berkeley. His first important works with graphics also dates from that period, when he did several experiments on an IDIOM display hooked up to a DEC PDP-5.

When he was building up the University of Utah department in 1968 he managed to convince Ivan Sutherland to come to Utah, accepting the condition that they start a computer graphics company together. Evans retired from the company in 1994.