-----------------------------------------------------------
Interface Message Processor
-----------------------------------------------------------
NIT Museum photos of J.C.R, Licklier
1957
1958
t967
circa ear
Ivan Massar
-----------------------------------------------------------
photos
ert Fano and
he Kludge producin
DP1
TX-O at NIT 1963
Sutherland tSe the TX-2 Sketchpad p?gra
Lincoln Laboratory ' ,
-----------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------
9
About BB N
t3ok be 'ar, ek and .",'ewman inc. is
company of neath' 750
app})' tccilno]oEv.
Our busine,s ;< ', ....
lccds foF:
aimlied :'c,earch
!3BN meet, [te,c nced by:
131N crvc, u dicr,tv fi' clicnt
[o,hm. Wa,hhhm. D.C..
-----------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------
I97cj, ,,vhcn a o'ei-u anti-cance: diu
,ed a; the niersitv o California with
ROPHET. the drug's discoverer, Dr.
pple. stated: "An aerage day of
ludy s oten mo useful than a year
al and error in th ab."
>mcnt or the PROPHET system has led
.nt development ot other research infor-
mling sy5tm that re commercially
_tHFO. for exami)le. is a system that
fi 'research investigators store. retrieve.
patient data in ritten or graphic form.
tware product. RSII. is a general pur-
:h toot that seines. in effect. as an
ope;a[½s tile IX,'clz'ork ' Control Ccntcr for [h½ Ah?PANET.
automa features an
English-like command language that enables users
with little or no computer experience to store and
file data, carry. out statistical analyses. and view data
in graphic, tabular, or textual form.
Medical and research applications of computers
were not the only offspring of BBN's early work in
time-sharing. The company developed systems for
use in business and cocnmerce and for six years
operated Telcomp, one of the earliest commercial
time-sharing services.
These activities formed the basis in 1969 for the
award of a contract that was to take BBN into yet
another major field of technology--packet-switched
data communications--a field in wtnich it has con-
tinued to make pioneering efforts of a significant
nature. Within one year of the award of this con-
tract from the Advanced Research Projects Agency
of the Department of Defense. BBN designed,
developed, and built a hardware/software system
that allowed four geographically separated com-
puters of different makes to communicate with
each other. The technique used a dynamic routing
process in which individual "packets" of data were
transmitted over the fastest available routes in tine
four-node network, which was interconnected with
wide-band telephone lines leased from the Bell
System. The dynamic routing process was called
packet-switching, and the four-node networt, rap-
idly grew into the ARPANET--a network that now
includes some 20 computer centers and accom-
modates thousands of users daily in the CJnited
States, Hawaii and Europe. Ttne network was later
expanded to include broadcast satellite channels.
-----------------------------------------------------------
[I, division scientist, has a
;Institute, and :\I.S. aId Sc.D.
21 engineerin from .briT. Dr.
BBN encompass a wide range
and advanced
rediction, testing, mx evalua-
mr self-noise and rada ted noise.
activities in noise
ling treatment designs, outer
clesign, and test pfanzirg and
aterests is the response of sensor
oundar), layer {TBL} excitation.
-damental lllClSLIFCIllClltS ()l' the
11 pressures to the design o/sonar
'ariet)' of naval applications.
vision scientist, is primarily
sign and cievelopment of inSlo-
raors and sound sources, which
OrlllaD Ce i II1 pI'OVcIllC [1 [s over
esigns. Mr. Murray works on
,terns that activcly'supress the
ry. He is also concerneel with the
anti i-strument systems. He has
ics vibration of machinery
fans, -ld wind tunnels.
dis Royce, Ltd. and holds an
rby, Engianct.
tivision scientist, received a B.A.
Kalamazoo College. an S.M. in
m the University or' Pittsburgh,
er science from \'I [Z Dr. Sidner's
ecia/ties are in discourse pro-
cation, collaborativc planning
qd problem solving. and inter-
;rlaphora, and speaker's mean-
d models o(discourse that
tion ot-rc(ercnce. and planning
a communicative situation.
-machine iratefaction that
rtorms, as presenteel through a
qoects the system to perform
orepurer environment. [See
II1. PROFILES OF SELECTEDBBN
SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGIES SCIENTISTS
BBN STC staff come to the company with a variety of educational and
professional backgrounds. Some staff members have been with the com-
pany since its inception fort years ago, while others have justjoined; all
have in common a keen interest in their fields, a commitment to tlaeir work,
and an intellectual curiosky that is continually reinforced by the company's
strong academic ties. Each year the SDPAmzuul Report profiles a group of
13BN STC scientists to illustrathe dirty aness of our staff.
,.. - '. j:" ''"William Crowther--incipal Engineer
,/.. once wrote in his curriculmn vitae, 'making
.... {'' I computers do unexpected things. I find
, ' -. this immensely satisfying." A principal
'7 4' engineer in the Laboratories Division,
, 7 ? . Will has been amajor contributor to
k7 the design anti implementation of the
;}i ARPANET (the Advanced Researci
i 2 Projects Agency Network) and BBN s
' Butterfly and Monarch pmallel proces-
a :': sots. He x, as mstrmnental m deslgmng the
2 j " Pluribus : multi-processor, the forerunner
5 ' of the Butterfly and the Monarch machines,
and contributed to the early design of the SIMNET training system.
A mathematician by training, Will uses math to figure out what softv,'are
programs will do and how well they ,,viii do it. He says he has always [lad
a predilection for pragmatic math -- the kind that "makes things happen,"
not the theoretical kind used in proofs and theorems. Will first used
computers as an undergraduate in MITs playsics department. The physics
department had computers; the math department did not, he explains.
From MIT, Will went to MIT's Lincoln Laboratory, v,,here he met Frank
Heart, now director of the Laboratories Division in BBN STC, and Dave
\Valefen, no,.,,' president of BBN STC. His favorite project tilere ,.,.'as the
Lincoln Experimental Terminal {LET}, a mobile satellite communications
system housed in two trailers. Tile trailers could use virtually any remote
object, including the moon, as a surface off which to bornice communi-
cations signals. Will designed and implemented tiao software for small
computers that aimed the trailers' six-foot dish antennas, made error
corrections on the returning signals, and compressed voice signals for
digital transmission.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------
