ARPANET Records
- From: Jose Menendez <ebooks@[redacted]>
- Subject: ARPANET Records
- Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 16:44:42 -0400
On June 28, I wrote:
> I'll have a lengthy post in a day or two, describing in greater
> details what the records revealed, along with links to copies of
> them in their official archive. . . .
I presume that most, if not all, of the members of the BP List have
heard of RFCs. Back when the ARPANET was being designed and set up,
they included many progress reports, status reports, notes on Network
Working Group meetings, etc. A lot of sites on the internet have
copies of the RFCs, but I'm only going to link to copies in the
official online database here:
http://www.rfc-editor.org/
To begin, let's look at this RFC dated February 23, 1971:
RFC 101 - Notes on the Network Working Group Meeting
http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc101.txt
This meeting was held at the University of Illinois in Urbana. The RFC
begins with this:
"Wednesday Evening, February 17
"Mike Sher opened by welcoming the group to Urbana and briefly
indicated that ILLIAC IV was expected to be running this summer. The
ILLIAC IV Project has been split into two projects; one on basic
system hardware and software, and the other on applications. Their
IMP is not yet connected to their PDP-11."
As you can see, there's a mention of the PDP-11. For those who may be
wondering what an IMP was, let me digress a moment to quote this
retrospective RFC:
RFC 2555 - 30 Years of RFCs
http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2555.txt
"At the time RFC 1 was written, the ARPANET was still under design.
Bolt, Beranek and Newman had won the all-important contract to build
and operate the Interface Message Processors or 'IMPs', the
forerunners of the modern routers. They were each the size of a
refrigerator and cost about $100,000 in 1969 dollars."
Now back to RFC 101. About two-thirds of the way down, you'll see this
paragraph:
"Thursday afternoon was open to a presentation by the University of
Illinois on the ILLIAC IV and a demonstration of the Plato project.
The initial test in November of the transmission lines to the ILLIAC
IV processors indicated no timing problems. The ILLIAC IV hardware is
to be up the fall as is the software. The system will be located in
California at NASA Ames Research Center. The connection to the
network from the University of Illinois will be a PDP-11 with storage
CRTs, 2400 baud character CRTs, typewriters attached. It will have a
Gould Clevite printer, DECtapes and small disc. The B6500 at the
University will also be connected to the Network."
As you can see, the University of Illinois was going to connect its
PDP-11 and B6500 to the network. There's no mention of Michael's
"Xerox Sigma V." Now if do a search in RFC 101 for the word Sigma,
you'll see that a Sigma computer was mentioned--a Sigma-7 at UCLA.
Anyone wondering about the "ILLIAC IV" that was mentioned several
times can find a number of web pages with information about it. In
brief, it was designed largely at the University of Illinois, built by
Burroughs, and it was supposed to be the fastest and most powerful
computer in the world up to that time. One of the primary reasons for
Illinois' ARPANET node was to be able to access the ILLIAC IV once it
was installed in California.
Another relevant RFC was written by J. Bouknight from the University
of Illinois and dated 26 April 1971:
RFC 156 - Status of the Illinois Site (Response to RFC 0116)
http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc156.txt
It's very short, so I'll just quote the whole thing:
"As of the date of the report, 26 April, the Illinois Site has
complete operational hardware connecting the PDP-11 system with the IMP.
"Due to much trouble with the Burroughs B6500 computer, final checkout
of the operating system plus the network control program for the
PDP-11 has been seriously curtailed. Current expectations are:
--checkout of the NCP by the latter part of May
--installation of the PDP-11 system in Paoli, PA (the operating
link between Illinois and Burroughs in Paoli) so that the
system will be operational during June"
Here again, we only see references to the PDP-11 and the Burroughs
B6500. There's no mention of Michael's "Xerox Sigma V."
Another very relevant RFC was written by Karl Kelley, also from the
University of Illinois:
RFC 184 - Proposed Graphic Display Modes
http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc184.txt
It's mostly about ideas for handling computer graphics, but it starts
with this paragraph:
"The ARPA Network node at the University of Illinois' Center for
Advanced Computation is somewhat different from other nodes in that we
are not simply attaching an existing computer center to the net. We
are in the process of establishing the computer system specifically
for use of the ILLIAC IV and the Network. In this mode we are
establishing operating systems, network interface and utility
routines, and ILLIAC IV routines to be used over the network."
As you can see, they were still "in the process of establishing the
computer system," and the date of that RFC is "6 July 1971," i.e. two
days *after* Michael supposedly used their node to post the
Declaration of Independence on the network. By the way, that RFC also
mentions the PDP-11 and the B6500, but there isn't one word about the
"Xerox Sigma V" in the "Materials Research Lab" that Michael claims he
used just two nights earlier.
Note that it also said that the node was at the university's "Center
for Advanced Computation." Where was that located in mid-1971? Let's
take a look at this RFC:
RFC 168 - ARPA Network Mailing Lists (26 May 1971)
http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc168.txt
You'll see that the address for the "Network Liaison" at Illinois was
James Madden
University of Illinois
Center for Advanced Computation
168 Engineering Research Lab.
Urbana, Illinois 61801
It also gives the same address for the NIC Station Agent, Nan Brown.
A week and a half after that "6 July 1971" RFC, there was this one
from Rand:
RFC 193 - Network Checkout
http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc193.txt
It begins: "As of 15 July we had contacted or been contacted by the
sites listed below. The matrix indicates the elements of Network
software we have verified at each site."
Illinois is not on the list. Surprising, isn't it, considering that
Michael claims that he was able to use their node 11 days earlier to
post his first ebook? :)
This next RFC was the earliest clear evidence I found that Illinois'
node was operational. It's the first of many site status reports from
BBN (Bolt, Beranek and Newman) and dated September 27, 1971:
RFC 235 - Site Status
http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc235.txt
I'm going to quote a few very interesting parts of this RFC:
"Beginning with this RFC, BBN will report on the status of most
Network Hosts approximately once every two weeks. The information for
these reports will be gained from talking to people at each site, and
from experimental 'data'. These data will be the results of daily
attempts to log into each of the Hosts which might be accessible to a
Network user; the attempts will have been made from the BBN prototype
Terminal IMP at a random time each weekday.
"Several Hosts are currently excluded from the daily testing. These
Hosts fall into two categories:
"1) Hosts which are not expected to be functioning on the
Network as servers (available for use from other sites) for
at least a month. Included here are:"
[snip]
"2) Hosts which are currently intended to be users only.
Included here are the Terminal IMPs presently in the
Network (AMES, MITRE, and BBN*). This category also
includes the Network Control Center computer (Network
Address 5) which is used solely for gathering statistics
from the Network. Finally, included among these Hosts
are the following:
Network Site Computer
Address
7 Rand IBM-360
73 Harvard PDP-1
12 Illinois PDP-11"
Further down in the detailed list of the network nodes, you'll also
see Illinois' status listed as "User only." A few important points:
First, of course, is the fact that hosts with servers are described as
"available for use from other sites," and the Illinois site didn't
have a server. Second, is the fact that it was "intended" to be a
"user only" site. Third, it wasn't one of the tested sites "which
might be accessible to a Network user." And last, but not least, once
more there's no mention of Michael's "Xerox Sigma V." There was,
however, a "SIGMA-7" at UCLA. :)
Some might point out that there's no mention of the Burroughs B6500
either. That's true. Why it isn't listed, I can't say for sure.
(Perhaps they still couldn't get it to work properly.) But it is on
the list in this RFC dated 12 October 1971:
RFC 247 - Proferred Set of Standard Host Names
http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc247.txt
As you can see, there are two--and only two--names on the list for
Illinois: "ILL-11" and "ILL-6500." There's no "ILL-V" or "ILL-5" for
Michael's "Xerox Sigma V."
The "ill-11" and "ill-6500" are also listed in this RFC from MIT,
dated 13 MARCH 1972:
RFC 308 - ARPANET Host Availability Data
http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc308.txt
Here are a few excerpts:
"Several months ago a SURVEY program was implemented on the
MIT-DMCG ITS PDP-10 system to aid in gathering information on the
availability of various HOSTS on the ARPANET....
"Briefly, the SURVEY program works as follows: At 15-minute
intervals whenever the MIT-DMCG ITS Time-Sharing system is in normal
operation, a SURVEY is started. The SURVEY program attempts to
establish a connection to the LOGGER (socket 1) of each HOST listed in
its table. The results of each connection attempt are recorded for
future reference."
There's a table showing the results of "6528 Surveys from 09:55:18 on
12/13/71 to 08:50:41 on 03/20/72." And for both the "ill-11" and the
"ill-6500" the "%-UP" (% uptime) is "000%." That doesn't necessarily
mean one or both weren't working. The RFC defined "UP" as "Logger
Accepting connections." As we saw from the BBN "Site Status" RFC, the
Illinois site was a "user only" site (no server), so the computers
wouldn't have been set up to accept login connections from other
sites. By the way, once more there was no mention of an "ill-v" or
"ill-5."
Next we have the last of that series of BBN site status reports, dated
8 August 1972:
RFC 376 - Network Host Status
http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc376.txt
As you can see, there were many more servers on the network by then,
but the status of the Illinois site was still "User Only." So even a
year after Michael's "anniversary," the Illinois site did not have a
server.
Last, but not least, we have this RFC dated 12 December 1973:
RFC 597 - Host Status
http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc597.txt
It lists two--and only two--computers connected to the ARPANET from
the Illinois site: a "PDP-11/20" and a "PDP-11/50." (No more Burroughs
B6500 and once again no mention of a "Xerox Sigma V.") And the status
of both computers was "User." So it would appear that even two and a
half years after Michael's "anniversary," the Illinois site didn't
have a server.
In conclusion, as I said in my last post, Michael's anniversary story
has problems.
Jose Menendez