As recently as 1968, computer scientists were uncertain how best to interconnect even two computers. The notion that within a few decades the challenge would be how to interconnect millions of computers around the globe was too far-fetched to contemplate. Yet, by 1988, that is precisely what was happening. The products and devices developed in the intervening years—such as modems, multiplexers, local area networks, and routers—became the linchpins of the global digital society. How did such revolutionary innovation occur? This book tells the story of the entrepreneurs who were able to harness and join two factors: the energy of computer science researchers supported by governments and universities, and the tremendous commercial demand for Internetworking computers. The centerpiece of this history comes from unpublished interviews from the late 1980s with over 80 computing industry pioneers, including Paul Baran, J.C.R. Licklider, Vint Cerf, Robert Kahn, Larry Roberts, and Robert Metcalfe. These individuals give us unique insights into the creation of multi-billion dollar markets for computer-communications equipment, and they reveal how entrepreneurs struggled with failure, uncertainty, and the limits of knowledge.
Advanced Praise for Circuits, Packets, and Protocols“The key technologies that brought us our modern networked society—routers, packet switching, multiplexers, Internet protocols—were all invented by people in the short period between 1968 and 1988. James Pelkey interviewed these people at that time and recorded their stories. This book is the result: a detailed and up-close personal history of a world being born. Fascinating.” – W. Brian Arthur, Author of
The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves “A marvelous and personal exploration of a poorly documented period in the history of data communication! I lived through it and re-lived it in these interviews and narrative.” – Vint Cerf, Internet Pioneer
“Circuits, Packets, & Protocols is not all about “winners” but includes the story of “losers” as well, and what can be learned from failures as well as successes. If you wonder whether there was a one-time confluence of events that brought us to the Digital Age, or a pattern we can learn from and pursue, this book will help you decide.” – Elizabeth (Jake) Feinler, Director of Network Information Systems Center, Stanford Research Institute, 1972-1989
“The authors take you on an astounding journey into the origins of the Digital Revolution. They help you understand how the entrepreneurs, technicians, bureaucrats, and the military cooperated, competed, and finally succeeded in creating some of the most interesting electronic dimensions of our modern society.” – Louis Galambos, The Johns Hopkins University
“Circuits, Packets, & Protocols is a masterpiece of scholarship—of a rare and beautiful kind. Pelkey, Robbins, and Russell have given the historical world a treasure, one that is unexpected and vital for a fundamental pivot-point in technology and its impact on world history.” – Chuck House, Founder and CEO, InnovaScapes Institute
“Circuits, Packets, & Protocols is one of the most detailed accounts of the 1980s that I have seen. The authors have managed to document the technical history accurately while capturing the entrepreneurial color of one of the most interesting and prolific eras in Silicon Valley history.” – Audrey MacLean, Co-Founder of N.E.T. and Consulting Professor, Stanford University
“The Internet didn’t happen overnight. It was the product of a set of quiet and diverse engineering efforts that took place over two decades long before the Internet became America’s digital Main St. Circuits, Packets, & Protocols tells that story.” – John Markoff, Author and Fellow, Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence
“Circuits, Packets, & Protocols is full of revelations for me even though I was there. Never had it explained so clearly how my distributed computing strategy was the wrong one for 3Com in the 1980s.” – Bob Metcalfe, Internet pioneer, Ethernet inventor, 3Com founder, UT Austin Professor of Innovation
Table of Contents
Prelude to Change: Data Communications, 1949–1968
Onset of Competition: Data Communications, 1968–1972
Packet Switching and ARPANET: Networking, 1959–1972
Market Order: Data Communications, 1973–1979
Protocol Confusion: Networking, 1972–1979
Emergence of Local Area Networks: Networking, 1976–1981
The Chaos of Competition: Networking, 1981–1982
The Need for Standards: Networking, 1975–1984
Market Order: Networking, 1983–1986
Adaptation of Wide Area Networks: Data Communications, 1979–1986
Market Consolidation: Data Communications and Networking, 1986–1988
Government Support for Internetworking, 1983–1988
The Emergence of Internetworking, 1985–1988
Conclusions
About the Author(s)
James L. Pelkey, Santa Fe Institute
James L. Pelkey spent his career as an investor and executive, including terms as a general partner at Montgomery Securities, President of Sorcim Corporation and Digital Sound Corporation, and, after his retirement, Trustee and Chairman of the Santa Fe Institute. He is a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1968) and Harvard Business School (1970). He now lives in Maui, Hawai´i.
Andrew L. Russell, SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Utica
Andrew L. Russell is Professor of History and Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Utica, New York. He is the author of numerous books and articles on the history of technology, standardization, and innovation, including Open Standards and the Digital Age: History, Ideology, and Networks (Cambridge University Press, 2014), and co-author with Lee Vinsel of The Innovation Delusion: How Our Obsession with the New Disrupts the Work That Matters Most (Currency, 2020).
Loring G. Robbins, Freelance Writer
Loring G. Robbins is a freelance writer based in Maui, Hawai´i. Previously, he worked as an animator and animation director for several media startups in the San Francisco Bay Area.
