Unix and C creator Dennis Ritchie dies aged 70

Dennis Ritchie, the creator of the C programming language and co-inventor of the Unix operating system, has died aged 70.

Ritchie's invention of the C programming tool was one of the key drivers of the computing revolution in the twentieth century. While it was originally built for the Unix system, it proved so popular that it was used to underpin the Windows platform.

Ritchie was jointly awarded the Turing Award in 1983 with Ken Thompson for their work on Unix, and he was head of Alcatel Lucent's software research department until his retirement in 2007.

Ritchie also co-authored the seminal work The C Programming Language, which is still a primary reference text used in most programming classes on the C programming system.

Jeong Kim, the president of Alcatel-Lucent's Bell Labs, issued his condolences to Ritchie's family and highlighted the impact Ritchie had made on those he had worked with.

"Dennis was well loved by his colleagues at Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs, and will be greatly missed," he said.

"He was truly an inspiration to all of us, not just for his many accomplishments, but because of who he was as a friend, an inventor and a humble and gracious man."

On hearing the news of Ritchie's passing, Google engineer Rob Pike said: "The world has lost a truly great mind."

His death means the world has recently lost two great technology innovators, both with markedly different skills and status in the industry, after Steve Jobs lost his long-running battle with cancer last week.