History 329/SI 311/RCSSCI 360
Computers and the Internet:
A global history
The ARPANET
Today
} Two frameworks for the history of computers &
networks
} The computer utility: mainframes as power plants
} ARPANET and the networking environment of the 1960s
} Vietnam
} Exam logistics & review
Global history: so far…
Two frameworks for thinking about the
history of computers and networks
4 2/11/16
Framework 1: technological trajectories
} Related, but different:
} Hardware
} Software
} applications
} Networking
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Framework 1: technological trajectories
Hardware
} Tubes > transistors > integrated circuits >
microprocessors
} Moore’s Law: the number of transistors on an integrated circuit
doubles every 18 months to 2 years
} Mainframes > minicomputers > personal computers >
PDAs > smartphones
} Bell’s Law:
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Moore’s law: transistors per microprocessor
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Gordon Bell’s “Law of Computer Classes”
} Technology enables two evolutionary paths:
1. constant performance, decreasing cost
2. constant price, increasing performance
mainframes
Log price
minicomputers
workstations
PCs
PDAs
smartphones
Time etc.
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Framework 1: technological trajectories
Software
} Languages: machine > assembly > higher level >
structured > object oriented
} Applications: custom > programming services >
packaged software > cloud
} Brooks’ Law: adding manpower to a late software project makes it
later
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Framework 1: technological trajectories
} Networking
} Timesharing > homogeneous > heterogeneous > webs
(internets)
} Metcalfe’s Law: the value of a telecommunications network is
proportional to the square of the number of connected user
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Framework 2: Functional evolution
} Calculation —> symbol processing (information)
} Control
} Communication
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Framework 2: Functional evolution
The 1940s: Computers as Calculators
} Primarily for science
} Nuclear weapons
} Code-breaking
} Meteorology
} Extremely expensive
} Unreliable, complex, power-hungry
} H. Aiken, 1947: “there will never be enough
problems, enough work, for more than one
or two of these [digital] computers”
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Framework 2: Functional evolution
The 1950s: Computers for Control
} SAGE
} Radar-based nuclear early warning
} Automatic guided interception
} Centralized computer control
} Initially resisted by Air Force, others
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Framework 2: Functional evolution
The 1960s: Computers for Communication
} “Computer utilities”
} Proprietary time-sharing networks
} ARPANET
} Initial motives
} Communication among ARPA researchers
} Survivable nuclear command/control
} Later: email, newsgroups dominated
} From special-purpose (sharing programs and data) to general
medium (text)
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The computer utility:
mainframes as power plants
Grosch’s Law (1953)
} “The performance of a computer varies as the square of
its price”
} Ergo, a $1 million computer is 25 times as fast/powerful/useful
as a $200,000 computer
} Bigger is better: analogy to electric power plants
} Extensively studied in 1960s-70s
} Encouraged “computer utility” idea (~1965-70)
} Centralization is better
Herb Grosch
The computer utility
Computation, like electricity and unlike oil, is not stored. Since its
production is concurrent with its consumption, production
capacity must provide for peak loads, and the cost of
equipment per dollar of revenue can soar. The high cost of
capital equipment is a major reason why producers of
electricity are public utilities instead of unregulated
companies.
A second reason is the extensive distribution network they
require to make their product generally available. This
network, once established, is geographically fixed and
immovable. Wasteful duplication and proliferation of lines
could easily result if there were no public regulation.
…an on-line interactive computer service, provided commercially by
an information utility, may be as commonplace by 2000 A.D. as the
telephone is today
— Martin Greenberger (1964)
The future… viewed in 1967
ARPANET and the Networking
Environment of the 1960s
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Baran’s network concept (1961)
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The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA)
} Founded 1958 in response to
Sputnik (1957)
} “...spawned in an atmosphere that
equated basic research with military
security”
} 1960: space programs to NASA
} ARPA mission redefined
} Potential relevance to military needs
} Saw itself as a kind of NSF within the
DoD
NSF vs. ARPA as Funding Agents
NSF ARPA
• Civilian • Military
• Peer review • Director/staff
discretion
• Rough • Centers of
geographical excellence
equity
• Unclassified • Could classify
research research (but
usually didn’t)
• Published results • No publication
requirement (but
much published)
• 1-3 year grants • Long-term,
informal funding
arrangements
• Broad range of • Small number of
research focus areas
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ARPA’s Information Processing Techniques
Office (IPTO)
} Origins
} Concern about System Development Corporation cutbacks
} 1961 - command and control research assigned to ARPA
} IPTO founded 1962
} Young, aggressive managers
} Mandate for large, well-funded projects
} Long-term orientation
IPTO’s First Director:
J. C. R. Licklider
} Psychoacoustician
} Worked on SAGE interface
} Influenced by John McCarthy
} AI, time-sharing
} Advocate of “interactive computing”
“Man-computer Symbiosis” (Licklider,
1960)
“The hope is that, in not too many years, human brains and
computing machines will be coupled together very tightly, and
that the resulting partnership will think as no human being
has ever thought and process data in a way not approached
by the information-handling machines we know today.”
} Military metaphors
} Needs for speed, real-time computing, interactive computing
ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY
Washington 25, D.C. April 23, 1963
MEMORANDUM FOR: Members and Affiliates of the
Intergalactic Computer Network
FROM: J. C. R. Licklider
SUBJECT: Topics for Discussion at the Forthcoming Meeting
First, I apologize humbly for having to postpone the meeting
scheduled for 3 May 1963 in Palo Alto. The ARPA Command &
Control Research office has just been assigned a new task that
must be activated immediately, and I must devote the whole of
the coming week to it….
IPTO’s “Centers of Excellence” Strategy
} Budgets: 30-40x larger than most academic laboratories
} To “improve the C3I systems required by an increasingly
technological military”
} MIT
} Stanford
} Univ. of Michigan
} Carnegie-Mellon University
} Univ. of California, Berkeley
} Univ. of Utah
} Stanford Research Institute (SRI)
} Systems Development Corp. (SDC)
IPTO’s Role in Computer Science
} Main military funder of basic research, 1960s-80s
} Major focus areas
} Time-sharing
} Computer graphics
} Artificial intelligence
} Computer networks
IPTO and Time-sharing
} 1967: six of top 12 time-sharing systems ARPA-sponsored
} Commercial time-sharing systems
} 1967-68: the “computer utility”
} By 1969: TYMNET, CYBERNET, Compuserve, others..
} Time-sharing centers
} By early 1970s, time-sharing integrated into commercial office
systems
} Military time-sharing systems widely used in 1970s, based
in ARPA IPTO projects
A Computer Network Typology
} Homogeneous networks (systems)
} link similar or identical computers
} Heterogenous networks (networks)
} link different kinds of computers
} Internetworks (webs)
} link different networks
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The ARPANET
} 1969: ARPANET construction
began
} BBN Interface Message Processor
(IMP)
} First node at UCLA
} 1971: 15 nodes (23 hosts)
} UCLA, SRI, UCSB, U of Utah, BBN,
MIT, RAND, SDC, Harvard, Lincoln
Lab, Stanford, UIUC, CWRU, CMU,
NASA/Ames
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ARPANET structure
Subnet: a homogeneous network of
IMPs, linking heterogeneous hosts
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ARPANET, December 1969
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ARPANET, December 1970
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ARPANET, March 1972
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ARPANET, September 1973
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The ARPANET
} 1974
} Cerf and Kahn, "A Protocol for Packet Network
Internetworking"
} BBN opened Telenet
} First public packet data service
} Serviced 68 cities by 1977
} Still a homogeneous network design
} 1975: ARPANET transferred to control of Defense
Communications Agency
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ARPANET, July 1975
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Vietnam
The Vietnam War (1965-1974)
} Procurements for war reduced military research budget
} Mansfield Amendment (1969)
} prohibited use of military funding for projects without direct
military application — directed at ARPA
} IPTO response:
} shorter projects
} new justifications
Proportion of Federal and Private R&D Funds
(all fields), 1945-90
120
100
Percent of total
80
60
40
20
0
1945 1955 1965 1975 1980 1985 1990
Federal Private
Federal Funding for Math and
CS, 1972-86
Millions of constant
600
1982 dollars
500
400
300
200
100
0
72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86
DOD DOE/NASA NSF Other
Computers and statistics in Vietnam
} War run from Washington: centralized command/control
} Complex communication webs
} Battlefield data collection problems
} Statistical approach obscured ground realities
} High-tech armies vs. peasant guerillas
Operation Igloo White
} The McNamara Line
} Infiltration Surveillance Center
} SAGE-like command-control center
The “Electronic Battlefield”
(Gen. Wm. Westmoreland)
} Remote sensors
} Remote command and control
} Fully integrated calculation, communication, and control
} A visionary discourse that has guided military research
ever since
Exam review
Next time: midterm exam
} In class, February 16
} Covers all materials through today (Feb 11)
} Study questions distributed Feb 9
} Identifications (16 study Qs, 8 on exam, choose 5)
} Short answers (14 study Qs, 5 on exam, choose 3)
} Essay questions (7 study Qs, 3 on exam, choose 2)
Logistics for midterm
} Bring two LARGE-FORMAT blue books to class.
Do not write anything in them in advance – not even
your name.
} Bring pens or pencils
} Arrive early if possible
} Exam will start at exactly 4:10
} Points are keyed to budgeted time: 1 pt./min, total = 75
points/minutes.
} Exam ends promptly at 5:35 PM
} I encourage you to study for the exam with other
students!
Identifications and short answers
} ENIAC women } Brooks’ Law } differential analyzer
} Colossus } IBM Card-Programmed } Social Security
} Williams tube Calculator Administration
packet switching (computing aspects)
} magnetic core memory }
} microprocessor } IBM System 360
} Herman Hollerith
} Whirlwind } EDVAC report
} Analytical Engine
} Turing test } cybernetics
} Ada Lovelace
} tide predictors } UNIVAC
} bit
} Grace Hopper } John von Neumann
} analog computer
} Antikythera } ARPANET
mechanism } analog-digital
} Manchester Mark 1 conversion
} microprocessor } shipboard fire control
