[ih] Historical fiction

[Alex McKenzie]

The original contract was for only 4 IMPs.  ARPA picked the locations, and has never really said what the decision process was.  But obviously they wanted them to all be sites where ARPA was funding major efforts, and they didn't want the circuit costs to break the bank (so one wouldn't want the cost of 2 cross-country circuits for the initial experiment).  Procuring circuits had a lead time of about 6 months, and no one knew whether BBN would be able to make the IMPs actually work, or to get the first one delivered just 9 months after contract award. It may also be relevant that Ivan Sutherland who was leading the graphics group at Utah had been at ARPA just before going to Utah.  It may also be relevant that Len Kleinrork and Larry Roberts were very close friends.



________________________________
 From: Miles Fidelman <mfidelman at meetinghouse.net>
To: 
Cc: internet-history at postel.org 
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2012 8:53 PM
Subject: Re: [ih] Historical fiction
 
Dave Walden wrote:
> BBN IMP was the fifth IMP on the network, in early 1970.

You know, I've always wondered, how is it that one of the first four nodes wasn't at either BBN or MIT?  How were the first four sites actually selected?

Miles Fidelman



-- In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.   .... Yogi Berra
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