[ih] Historical fiction

[Dave Walden]

>Craig said:
>In the 1970s and 1980s, many leading universities had multiple computer
>centers run by different departments/agencies (for instance, Harvard had
>at least four around 1980).   In many cases this was a response to an
>administrative unit (department, school) being unable to get the computing
>resources from the main computing facility.

Two (barely?) related points:

1. My memory is that part of the "excuse" for ARPA building the 
ARPANET was because each ot their contractors wanted their own big 
computer system, and the ARPANET was supposed to get them to share 
resources on fewer big computer systems, i.e., with ARPA having to 
fund fewer computer facilities.

2. My feeling is that local areas networking with PCs took off (circa 
1980s) partly because company (not just university) branch  offices, 
departments, etc., could use that to escape the control (and perhaps 
cost) of the official company computer center.



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