Wang Laboratories Headquarters Site, Massachusetts

MIT and its associated research labs were not the only source of Massachusetts-based computer pioneers who founded the industry that changed the world: An Wang came out of Harvard University's Computation Lab, and established Wang Laboratories, a rapidly rising star in the minicomputer market. Among Dr. Wang's forty-four patents were to be found both magnetic-core and SIMM memory. However, like other innovative Massachusetts computer companies such as Data General and Prime, Wang fell on hard times in the late 1980's as the personal computer industry took off, and the locus of computer innovation  shifted completely to Silicon Valley. Wang, which once pulled the Lowell area out of its economic slump, went bankrupt in 1992, and vacated its headquarters building, located on the north end of the Route 128 Massachusetts Miracle corridor.