For several years we had UCSB’s IMP control panel hanging in our office as a wall decoration (it belonged to Larry Green, one of the UCSB IMPlementors). I still have the manuals. The actual IMP with 56Kbps modem was in a huge rack with lifting eyes for a fork lift, and weighed about 500 lbs. Every IMP had a unique customized host interface, which packetized bit-serial data from the host over the host’s usually proprietary I/O bus.
While this was part of computers internetworking with each other, it was not the capital-I Internet. -mel > On Oct 20, 2021, at 2:20 PM, b...@theworld.com wrote: > > >> On October 20, 2021 at 16:08 m...@beckman.org (Mel Beckman) wrote: >> Mark, >> >> Before 1983, the ARPANET wasn’t an internet, let alone The Internet. Each >> ARPANET connection required a host-specific interface (the “IMP”) and simplex >> Network Control Protocol (NCP). NCP used users' email addresses, and routing >> had to be specified in advance within each NCP message. > > Then again there were IMPs fitted to various systems like TOPS-10, > ITS, Vax/BSD Unix, IBM370, etc. > > So was that really all that different from ethernet vs, oh, wi-fi or > fiber today, you needed an adapter? > >> >> Even so, the Internet as a platform open to anyone didn’t start until 1992. I >> know you joined late, in 1999, so you probably missed out on this history. :) > > Well, we certainly tried in 1989 :-) We had customers from all over > The World, um, the big round one you see when you look down. > >> >> -mel >> >> >> On Oct 20, 2021, at 8:43 AM, Mark Tinka <mark@tinka.africa> wrote: >> >> >> >> On 10/20/21 17:26, Mel Beckman wrote: >> >> >> Mark, >> >> As long as we’re being pedantic, January 1, 1983 is considered the >> official birthday of the Internet, when TCP/IP first let different >> kinds of computers on different networks talk to each other. >> >> It’s 2021, hence the Internet is less than, not more than, 40 years >> old. Given your mathematical skills, I put no stock in your claim >> that >> we still can’t “buy an NMS that just works.” :) >> >> >> Hehehe :-)... >> >> I guess we can reliably say that the ARPANET wasn't keen on pretty >> pictures, then, hehe :-)... >> >> Mark. >> >> >> > > > -- > -Barry Shein > > Software Tool & Die | b...@theworld.com | > http://www.TheWorld.com > Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: +1 617-STD-WRLD | 800-THE-WRLD > The World: Since 1989 | A Public Information Utility | *oo*
