[ih] "The First Router" on Jeopardy

[Jorge Amodio]

There is another mention of the "Routing Algorithm" on the 1972 memo from
Crowther, Walden and Mimno, to Frank Heart/IMP Guys, describing the new
routing algorithm.

-J

On Tue, Nov 23, 2021 at 8:34 AM Jorge Amodio <jmamodio at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> BBN Report #1783 (1969) includes the addition of the "Routing Algorithm"
> but it does not define the word "router" but the description implies that
> the IMP with this algorithm acts as a router.
>
> Trying to find a copy of Report #1822 ....
>
> Cheers
> Jorge
>
>
> On Mon, Nov 22, 2021 at 2:50 PM Jack Haverty via Internet-history <
> internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
>
>> Watching Jeopardy from November 17, 2021, I was surprised to see a
>> "clue" which was a picture of Len Kleinrock standing in front of the
>> ARPANET IMP which has been preserved at UCLA.  It was a clue under the
>> category "It's a New Machine".
>>
>> The host read the clue:
>>
>> "In 1969, Leonard Kleinrock and his team sent the first message over the
>> Internet with the first THIS, which now connects devices like modems."
>>
>> None of the contestants knew the answer, although one guessed
>> "backbone", which isn't a bad guess.  So the guest revealed the answer:
>>
>> "You're looking at the first router."
>>
>> My immediate reaction was "No, you're not!    That's an IMP."
>>
>> See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lmv1WKMGcDw starting at about 1:29
>>
>> That's not quite like I remember it.  Ginny Strazisar built the first
>> switching device for the Internet to connect the ARPANET to the Packet
>> Radio net, circa 1977.  To me that was the genesis of the "Internet" -
>> INTERconnecting of NETworks of a variety of types, using TCP/IP to glue
>> it all together.   But millions of people just learned otherwise.
>>
>> A historical tidbit -- Back in 1977 Ginny's system was called a
>> "gateway", but later was renamed a "router".   It's possible that I did
>> the renaming.  At BBN we were selling lots of packet switches, and
>> sometimes customers asked for ideas on how to use their LANs in the
>> network.  Our sales people would tell them about the research
>> activities, and the role of gateways, TCP/IP , and the Internet. But in
>> many customers' minds that term "gateway"  immediately set off alarm
>> bells, because they had prior bad experience with "gateways" in their
>> IBM networks, and didn't want anything to do with more "gateways".   So
>> I suggested calling them "routers" instead of "gateways", and suddenly
>> the marketplace became much more willing to listen.
>>
>> Enjoy,
>> Jack Haverty
>>
>>
>> --
>> Internet-history mailing list
>> Internet-history at elists.isoc.org
>> https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/internet-history
>>
>