[ih] First file transfer on ARPANET

[Dave Crocker]

On 12/21/2012 1:31 PM, Craig Partridge wrote:
> My impression (I started in 1983) is that distributed computing was
> an idea that for a brief period worked -- the time required for long
> distance communication roughly was in sync with processor times, from
> about the late 1970s until the early 1990s.  That's when we saw distributed
> file systems flourish and experiments with distributed shared memory.


As you have phrased it, this sounds as if 'distributed computing' ceased 
to be a significant topic.  (One could argue that remote file sharing 
and remote document sharing are the relatively trivial aspects to 
distributed computing, since the underlying semantic of being a file 
store is relatively passive and subordinate; the sex appeal is in 
'cooperative' processing.)

Actually it appears that distributed computing cycles of activity.

Without pressing the point too hard, it seems to have bursts about every 
10 years, probably close to the decade mark.  Arpanet played with it 
some in the early 70s, but the Irvine Ring had the construct deeply 
embedded at that time.  Then RPC in 1980.  I'll wave my hand and say 
'Web' for 1990, but more seriously suggest Web 2.0 for 2000.  Arguably 
SDNs and downloadable UIs are the exemplars for 2010?

And I guess cloud computing becomes the cliche'd reference for 2010...

d/

-- 
  Dave Crocker
  Brandenburg InternetWorking
  bbiw.net