Transforming Computer Technology: Information Processing for the Pentagon, 1962-1986 (Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology, 18)

Winner of the Association of American Publishers Professional and Scholarly Publishing Award for Computer Science Over the course of several decades, the Pentagon's Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) helped transform computing from a cumbersome enterprise based on batch processing to the instantly interactive, graphically rich, highly intelligent computing of today. With the purpose of improving command and control systems for the military, IPTO researchers strengthened time-sharing, laid the groundwork for graphics and parallel processing, contributed to the study of artificial intelligence, and developed the wide-area network that came to be known as the Internet. Transforming Computer Technology examines these and other developments at the Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency in its heyday between 1962 and 1986. The authors show how Pentagon programs affected significant developments in both computer science and engineering. They analyze the management of the office, the origins and growth of important IPTO programs, and the interaction of the staff with the R & D community. They pay special attention to IPTO's role in executing research at the leading edge of computing and networking and in working with the military to transfer that research into practical use. And they show how, by the 1990s, the research results had been assimilated into systems both for the military and for civilian society. In the explosively changing world of computer technology, massive funding and large-scale enterprise have become givens, and probably no single actor has had a greater influence on computer research and development than the U.S. Department of Defense. R&D programs of the Pentagon's Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) transformed computing from a cumbersome enterprise based on batch processing to the instantly interactive, graphically rich, highly intelligent computing of today. With the purpose of improving command and control systems for the military, IPTO researchers strengthened time-sharing, laid the groundwork for graphics and parallel processing, contributed to the study of artificial intelligence, and developed the wide-area network that came to be known as the Internet. Transforming Computer Technology examines these and other developments at the Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency in its heyday between 1962 and 1986. The authors show how Pentagon programs affected significant developments in both computer science and engineering. They analyze the management of the office, the origins and growth of important IPTO programs, and the interaction of the staff with the R&D community. They pay special attention to IPTO's role in executing research at the leading edge of computing and networking and in working with the military to transfer that research into practical use. And they show how, by the 1990s, the research results had been assimilated into systems both for the military and for civilian society. Over the course of several decades, the Pentagon's Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) helped transform computing from a cumbersome enterprise based on batch processing to the instantly interactive, graphically rich, highly intelligent computing of today. With the purpose of improving command and control systems for the military, IPTO researchers strengthened time-sharing, laid the groundwork for graphics and parallel processing, contributed to the study of artificial intelligence, and developed the wide-area network that came to be known as the Internet. Transforming Computer Technology examines these and other developments at the Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency in its heyday between 1962 and 1986. The authors show how Pentagon programs affected significant developments in both computer science and engineering. They analyze the management of the office, the origins and growth of important IPTO programs, and the interaction of the staff with the R & amp D community. They pay special attention to IPTO's role in executing research at the leading edge of computing and networking and in working with the military to transfer that research into practical use. And they show how, by the 1990s, the research results had been assimilated into systems both for the military and for civilian society Frontmatter (page N/A) Preface and Acknowledgments (page vii) List of Frequently Used Acronyms (page xiii) Introduction (page 1) 1 Managing for Technological Innovation (page 24) 2 Sharing Time (page 68) 3 Getting the Picture: the Growth of Interactive Computer Graphics (page 119) 4 Improving Connections among Researchers: The development of Packet-Switching Computer Networks (page 153) 5 The Search for Intelligent Systems (page 197) 6 Serving the Department of Defense and the Nation (page 258) Appendix: List of Interview Subjects (page 299) Notes (page 301) Index (page 351) We need at the outset to distinguish this book from an earlier report we wrote on the history of IPTO, A History of the Information Processing Techniques Office of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Minneapolis, Minn.: Charles Babbage Institute, 1992), researched and written under a contract issued by the Department of Defense (NASA-Ames Research Grant NAG 2-532, subcontract USC/PO 473764). "During World War II, the military services (became) leaders in the funding of experimental projects to design and construct computing machines because of a perceived need for faster and more powerful computing. Some of these projects have become legendary."--from the Introduction. (Computers--General Information) Arthur L. Norberg And Judy E. O'neill ; With Contributions By Kerry J. Freedman. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [301]-349) And Index.