Published by The Internet-First University Press The Early Years of Academic Computing: A Collection of Memoirs Edited by William Y. Arms and Kenneth M. King This is a collection of reflections/memoirs concerning the early years of academic computing, emphasizing the period from the 1950s to the 1990s when universities developed their own com- puting environments. Cornell University Initial Release: June 2014 Increment 01: April 2016 Increment 02-04: April 2017 NOTE: This is the first part of a set of memoirs to be published by The Internet-First University Press. This book – http://hdl.handle.net/1813/36810 Books and Articles Collection – http://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/handle/1813/63 The Internet-First University Press – http://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/handle/1813/62 An Incremental Book Publisher’s Note This is the second Internet-First publication in a new publishing genre, an ‘Incremental Book’ that becomes feasible due to the Internet. Unlike paper-first book publishing – in which each contribution is typically held in abeyance until all parts are complete, and only then presented to the reading public as part of a single enti- ty – with Internet publishing, book segments (Increments) can be released when finalized. Book parts may be published as they become available. We anticipate releasing updated editions from time-to-time (using dat- ed, rather than numbered editions) that incorporate these increments. These digital collections may be freely downloaded for personal use, or may be ordered as bound copies, at user expense, from Cornell Business Ser- vices (CBS) Digital Services by sending an e-mail to [email protected] or calling 607.255.2524. In the body of the message include the URL for this book or increment, and request contact regarding payment. As these increments become available online, the eCommons@Cornell digital repository will automatically provide a listing of the most recent additions to this collection. Furthermore, we will provide a chronologically ordered PDF file named Increments‘ and Forthcoming Sections’ to be added to this eCommons collection. From time-to-time these ‘increments’ will be integrated into the book, which will then bear a new edition date. The Internet-First University Press June 2014 Copyright © 2014 by Cornell University and the individual contributors The online version of this book may be downloaded for personal use only. Mass reproduction and any further distribution requires written permission of the copyright holder. copy editor and proofreader: Dianne Ferriss Published by The Internet-First University Press Ithaca, New York Co-founders: J. Robert Cooke and Kenneth M. King i Preface In March 2014 Bill Arms approached Ken King about publishing his memoir about the Early Years of Academic Computing in the Internet First University Press (IFUP). The IFUP had been created in 2003 by Bob Cooke and Ken King as part of a project to encourage open publication on the Internet as a first choice for scholarly publication. Bill had written his memoir as a result of his observation that todays students were unaware of the many contributions Universities had made to creating the current computing environment and some of those contributions needed to be documented. Ken King stated that he believed that Universities deserved far more credit for computing advances than they had received. Ken suggested that Bill try to create an “incremental book” by persuading other pioneers to contribute their memoirs. The incremental book idea was developed by Bob Cooke as part of the IFUP effort to get scholarly information on the Internet. The idea was that the IFUP would publish chapters or sections in a book on the Internet as they are finished, rather than wait until the whole book had been completed. Bill suggested to Ken that he develop his own memoir and that he and Ken then jointly approach other pioneers as co-editors to create an incremental book composed of memoirs by people who labored at Universities and may recall events and contributions that helped change the world. Ken agreed and the second section in our book covers his observations about life in the trenches at Universities during the period between 1953 and 1993. The book that we hope to create is possibly an effort not unlike the story about an elephant touched by blind men. People that we hope will contribute will certainly have different slants on major events at the Universities that helped change the world. ii Contents of this Incremental Book Publisher’s Note................................. .i Preface ........................................ii A. Memoir by William Y. Arms ................. .1.1 B. Memoir by Kenneth M. King ................. .2.1 C. Memoir by Douglas S. Gale ...................3.1 iii iv 01 A R M S The Early Years of Academic Computing: A Memoir by William Y. Arms This is from a collection of reflections/memoirs concerning the early years of academic comput- ing, emphasizing the period from the 1950s to the 1990s when universities developed their own computing environments. ©2014 William Y. Arms Initial Release: June 2014 Published by The Internet-First University Press Copy editor and proofreader: Dianne Ferriss The entire incremental book is openly available at http://hdl.handle.net/1813/36810 Books and Articles Collection – http://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/handle/1813/63 The Internet-First University Press – http://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/handle/1813/62 1.0 A. Memoir by William Y. Arms Preface The past fifty years have seen university computing move from a fringe activity to a central part of academic life. Today’s college seniors never knew a world without personal computers, networks, and the web. Some- times I ask Cornell students, “When my wife and I were undergraduates at Oxford, there were separate men’s and women’s colleges. If we wanted to meet in the evening, how did we communicate?” They never knew a world without telephones and email, let alone smartphones, Google, and Facebook. They are also unaware that much of modern computing was developed by universities. Universities were the pi- oneers in end-user computing. The idea that everybody is a computer user is quite recent. Many organizations still do not allow their staff to choose their own computers, decide how to use them, and select the applications to run. But end-user computing has been established in universities since the 1960s. When the computer in- dustry was slow in seeing the potential, universities took the initiative. This narrative describes a thirty-year period when academic computing diverged from the mainstream. Universities built their own state-of-the-art systems and ran them successfully. They led the development of timesharing and local area (campus) networks. They were major contributors to distributed computing, email, the national networks, and the web. This is not a history. It is a memoir. As a student, faculty member, and administrator, I lived through many of these developments. From 1978 to 1995 I was in charge of computing at two of the leading universities, Dart- mouth College and Carnegie Mellon. After 1995 I was no longer personally involved in the developments, but in the final section I describe how academic computing and the mainstream have now come together again, to the benefit of both. There is a glaring gap that runs throughout this narrative. It says little about the impact of computing on aca- demic life, on teaching, research, and libraries. The final section has a few thoughts about educational comput- ing, but it is a huge topic that deserves a much fuller treatment. Disruptive change is an underlying theme of this period. I have tried to give some indication of what it was like to be a computing director, the opportunities and the excitement, but also the pressures and uncertainties. I was fortunate in working for two remarkable presidents, John Kemeny at Dartmouth and Richard Cyert at Carnegie Mellon. Each was a visionary in seeing how computing could be used in higher education. When I remember my colleagues at other universities wrestling with less enlightened leaders, I know how lucky I was. 1.1 Contents Preface . 1 .. 1. 1 . Early Days . .1 . .3 Background: the 1960s The IBM 360 and its Clones University Computing before Timesharing 2 . Timesharing . .1 11. Early Timesharing Timesharing at Dartmouth 3 . The Organization of Computing in Universities . 1. 19. Departmental Computing Centers The Computing Industry Planning for Personal Computers 4 . Networks . 1 .29 Campus Networks National Networks Case Studies: Dartmouth and Carnegie Mellon 5 . Networks of Personal Computers . .1 41. Personal Computers and Workstations The Macintosh at Dartmouth Carnegie Mellon and the Andrew Project 6 . Modern Times . 1 .55 Academic Computing Today Computing in Education Sources . 1 .60 1.2 Chapter 1 The Early Days A second generation computer This photograph is of a Ferranti Peg- asus computer in the Science Muse- um in London. The museum claims that it is the oldest computer in the world that is still operational. Wikipedia Background: The 1960s The 1960s The mid-1960s were a pivotal time for computing. In 1965, as semiconductors replaced vacuum tubes, Gordon Moore of Intel observed that the number of transistors on integrated circuits was doubling every two years. A year earlier, IBM had announced the 360 family of computers. Timesharing was born that same year, when two people at Dartmouth College using separate terminals typed “PRINT 2+2” and (after some bugs were fixed) both got the answer 4. Moore’s Law is not a law of nature, but for fifty years hardware engineers have used it as a target. On aggregate they have actually done better than Moore predicted. This exponential growth has created enormous opportu- nities, but it has also created intense challenges. Many years later, Allen Newell pointed out that collectively we do well in predicting the performance of components such as processors and disks; we do quite well in predict- ing the next generation of hardware, such as networks and personal computers; but we have consistently failed to predict the breakthrough applications enabled by this hardware.