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1970
DEC's
PDP-10
DEC's
PDP-11 |
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Nodes
are added to the ARPANET at the rate of one per month.
Programmers
Dennis Ritchie and Kenneth Thompson at Bell Labs complete
the UNIX operating system on a spare DEC minicomputer.
UNIX combines many of the time-sharing and file-management
features offered by Multics and wins a wide following,
particularly among scientists.
Bob
Metcalfe builds a high-speed (100 Kbps) network interface
between the MIT IMP and a PDP-6 to the ARPANET. It runs
for 13 years without human intervention. Metcalfe goes
on to build another ARPANET interface for Xerox PARCs
PDP-10 clone (MAXC).
DEC
announces the Unibus for its PDP-11 minicomputers to
allow the addition and integration of myriad computer-cards
for instrumentation and communications.
In
December, the Network Working Group (NWG) led by Steve
Crocker finishes the initial ARPANET Host-to-Host protocol,
called the Network Control Protocol (NCP). |
1971
ARPANET
map, 1971
BBN's
TIP
Advertisement
for the Intel 4004 |
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The
ARPANET begins the year with 14 nodes in operation. BBN
modifies and streamlines the IMP design so it can be moved
to a less cumbersome platform than the DDP-516. BBN also
develops a new platform, called a Terminal Interface Processor
(TIP) which is capable of supporting input from multiple
hosts or terminals. The
Network Working Group completes the Telnet protocol
and makes progress on the file transfer protocol (FTP)
standard. At the end of the year, the ARPANET contains
19 nodes as planned.
Intels
release of the 4004, the first computer on a chip,
ushers in the epoch of the microprocessor. The combination
of memory and processor on a single chip reduces size
and cost, and increases speed, continuing the evolution
from vacuum tube to transistor to integrated circuit.
Many
small projects are carried out across the new network,
including the demonstration of an aircraft-carrier landing
simulator. However, the overall traffic is far lighter
than the networks capacity. Something needs to
stimulate the kind of collaborative and interactive
atmosphere consistent with the original vision. Larry
Roberts and Bob Kahn decide that it is time for a public
demonstration of the ARPANET. They choose to hold this
demonstration at the International Conference on Computer
Communication (ICCC) to be held in Washington, DC, in
October 1972. |
1972
Steve
Wozniak's 'Blue Box' People
get on my nerves
I
am not sure I understand you
You
should pay more attention
Suppose
you should pay more attention
You're
entitled to your opinion
What
makes you think I am entitled to my own opinion?
--
from a conversation between PARRY and the Doctor
via the ARPANET |
|
The
ARPANET grows by ten more nodes in the first 10 months
of 1972. The year is spent finishing, testing and releasing
all the network protocols, and developing network demonstrations
for the ICCC. At
BBN, Ray Tomlinson writes a program to enable electronic
mail to be sent over the ARPANET. It is Tomlinson who
develops the user@host convention, choosing
the @ sign arbitrarily from the non-alphabetic symbols
on the keyboard. Unbeknownst to him, @ is already in
use as an escape character, prompt, or command indicator
on many other systems. Other networks will choose other
conventions, inaugurating a long period known as the
e-mail header wars. Not until the late 1980s
will @ finally become a worldwide standard.
Following
the lead of Intels 4004 chip, hand-held calculators
ranging from the simple Texas Instruments four-function
adding machines to the elaborate Hewlett-Packard scientific
calculators immediately consign ordinary slide rules
to oblivion.
Xerox
PARC develops a program called Smalltalk, and Bell Labs
develops a language called C.
Steve
Wozniak begins his career by building one of the best-known
blue boxes; tone generators that enable
long-distance dialing while bypassing the phone companys
billing equipment.
The
ICCC demonstrations are a tremendous success. One of
the best known demos features a conversation between
ELIZA, Joseph Weizenbaums artificially-intelligent
psychiatrist located at MIT, and PARRY, a paranoid computer
developed by Kenneth Colby at Stanford. Other demos
feature interactive chess games, geography quizzes,
and an elaborate air traffic control simulation. An
AT&T delegation visits ICCC but leaves in puzzlement. |
1973
ARPANET
Map, 1973
Bob
Kahn
Vint
Cerf |
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Thirty
institutions are connected to the ARPANET. The network
users range from industrial installations and consulting
firms like BBN, Xerox PARC and the MITRE Corporation,
to government sites like NASAs Ames Research Laboratories,
the National Bureau of Standards, and Air Force research
facilities. The
ICCC demonstrations prove packet-switching a viable
technology, and ARPA (now DARPA, where the D
stands for Defense) looks for ways to extend
its reach. Two new programs begin: Packet Radio sites
are modeled on the ALOHA experiment at the University
of Hawaii designed by Norm Abramson, connecting seven
computers on four islands; and a satellite connection
enables linking to two foreign sites in Norway and the
UK.
Bob
Kahn moves from BBN to DARPA to work for Larry Roberts,
and his first self-assigned task is the interconnection
of the ARPANET with other networks. He enlists Vint
Cerf, who has been teaching at Stanford. The problem
is that ARPANET, radio-based PRnet, and SATNET all have
different interfaces, packet sizes, labeling, conventions
and transmission rates. Linking them together is very
difficult.
Kahn
and Cerf set about designing a net-to-net connection
protocol. Cerf leads the newly formed International
Network Working Group. In September 1973, the two give
their first paper on the new Transmission Control Protocol
(TCP) at an INWG meeting at the University of Sussex
in England.
Meanwhile,
at Xerox PARC, Bob Metcalfe is working on a wire-based
system modeled on ALOHA protocols for Local Area Networks
(LANs). It will become Ethernet. |
1974
Xerox
PARC Alto
J.C.R.
Licklider |
|
Daily
traffic on the ARPANET exceeds 3 million packets. DARPA
funds three contracts, one at Stanford (Cerf and his students),
one at BBN (directed by e-mail inventor Ray Tomlinson),
and one at University College London (directed by Peter
Kirstein) to develop and implement the Kahn-Cerf TCP protocol.
Their presentation is published as A Protocol for Packet
Network Interconnection in May 1974 in the IEEE Transactions
on Communications Technology. Ethernet
is demonstrated by networking Xerox PARCs new
Alto computers.
BBN
recruits Larry Roberts to direct a new venture, called
Telenet, which is the first public packet-switched service.
Roberts departure creates a crisis in the DARPA
IPTO office.
DARPA
has fulfilled its initial mission. Discussions about
divesting DARPA of operational responsibility for the
network are held. Because it is DARPA-funded, BBN has
no exclusive right to the source code for the IMPs.
Telenet and other new networking enterprises want BBN
to release the source code. BBN argues that it is always
changing the code and that it has recently undergone
a complete rewrite at the hands of John McQuillan. Their
approach makes Roberts task of finding a new director
for IPTO difficult. J.C.R. Licklider agrees to return
to IPTO from MIT on a temporary basis.
In
addition to DARPA, The National Science Foundation (NSF)
is actively supporting computing and networking at almost
120 universities. The largest NSF installation is at
the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
in Boulder, Colorado. There, scientists use a home-built
remote job entry system to connect to NCARs
CDC 7600 from major universities. |
1975
ARPANET
Map, 1975 |
|
The
ARPANET geographical map now shows 61 nodes. Licklider
arranges its administration to be turned over to the Defense
Communications Agency (DCA). BBN remains the contractor
responsible for network operations. BBN agrees to release
the source code for IMPs and TIPs. The
Network Working Group maintains its open system of discussion
via RFCs and e-mail lists. Discomfort grows with the
bureaucratic style of DCA.
The
Department of Energy creates its own net to support
its own research. This net operates over dedicated lines
connecting each site to the computer centers at the
National Laboratories.
NASA
begins planning its own space physics network, SPAN.
These networks have connections to the ARPANET so the
newly developed TCP protocol begins to get a workout.
Internally, however, the new networks use such a variety
of protocols that true interoperability is still an
issue. |
1976
A
self-portrait drawn by the Cray-1 |
|
DARPA
supports computer scientists at UC Berkeley who are revising
a Unix system to incorporate TCP/IP protocols. Berkeley
Unix also incorporates a second set of Bell Labs protocols,
called UUCP, for systems to use dial-up connections.
Seymour
Cray demonstrates the first vector-processor supercomputer,
the CRAY-1. The first customers include Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory,
and NCAR. The CRAY-1 hardware is more compact and faster
than previous supercomputers. No wire is more than 4
feet long, and the clock period is 12.5 nanoseconds
(billionths of a second). The machine is cooled by freon
circulated through stainless steel tubing bonded within
vertical wedges of aluminum between the stacks of circuit
boards (Cray patents the bonding process). The CRAY-1s
speed and power attract researchers, who want access
to it over networks.
Vint
Cerf moves from Stanford to DARPA to work with Bob Kahn
on networking and the TCP/IP protocols. |
1977
Diagram
of the Multinetwork Demonstration |
|
Steve
Wozniak and Steve Jobs announce the Apple II computer.
Also introduced are the Tandy TRS-80 and the Commodore
Pet. These three off-the-shelf machines create the consumer
and small business markets for computers. Cerf
and Kahn mount a major demonstration, internetting
among the Packet Radio net, SATNET, and the ARPANET.
Messages go from a van in the Bay Area across the US
on ARPANET, then to University College London and back
via satellite to Virginia, and back through the ARPANET
to the University of Southern Californias Information
Sciences Institute. This shows its applicability to
international deployment.
Larry
Landweber of the University of Wisconsin creates THEORYNET
providing email between over 100 researchers and linking
elements of the University of Wisconsin in different
cities via a commercial packet service like Telenet. |
1978
David
Clark This
ARPA program has created no less than a revolution in
computer technology and has been one of the most successful
projects ever undertaken by ARPA.
The full impact of the technical changes set in motion
by this project may not be understood for many years.
--
from ARPANET Completion Report, January 3, 1978 |
|
The
appearance of the first very small computers and their
potential for communication via modem to dial up services
starts a boom in a new set of niche industries, like software
and modems. Vint
Cerf at DARPA continues the vision of the Internet,
forming an International Cooperation Board chaired by
Peter Kirstein of University College London, and an
Internet Configuration Control Board, chaired by Dave
Clark of MIT.
The
ARPANET experiment formally is complete. This leaves
an array of boards and task forces over the next few
years trying to sustain the vision of a free and open
Internet that can keep up with the growth of computing. |
1979
Cover
of COMPUTER Magazine from September 1979 |
|
Larry
Landweber at Wisconsin holds a meeting with six other
universities to discuss the possibility of building a
Computer Science Research Network to be called CSNET.
Bob Kahn attends as an advisor from DARPA, and Kent Curtis
attends from NSFs computer research programs. The
idea evolves over the summer between Landweber, Peter
Denning (Purdue), Dave Farber (Delaware), and Tony Hearn
(Utah). In
November, the group submits a proposal to NSF to fund
a consortium of eleven universities at an estimated
cost of $3 million over five years. This is viewed as
too costly by the NSF.
USENET
starts a series of shell scripts written by Steve Bellovin
at UNC to help communicate with Duke. Newsgroups start
with a name that gives an idea of its content. USENET
is an early example of a client server where users dial
in to a server with requests to forward certain newsgroup
postings. The server then serves the request. |
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