History of the Internet

In early 1967 Bob Taylor called with members the possible host sited for the networks and staff members at IPTO and ARPA at Ann Arbor Michigan to discuss the network project to come. During the meeting there was allot of bickering over if there should be a main host for the new network to process and transmit everything, or not. The problem that they were facing was a protocol for the computers to communicate to the host, every computer spoke a different language from another. On the way back to the airport after the meeting, Wes Clark came up with an idea for having small "hosts" at each computer in the network. Clark explained that with the smaller hosts, the network would consist of one language making it easier to control. They realized only Frank Heart could build the hosts who, at the time, was working at BBN but who use to work as a computer systems engineer at MIT’s Lincoln Lab.

By the end of 1967 Larry Roberts wrote his first proposal on the soon to be "ARPA net" using the hosts, or Interface Message Processor (IMP), and Paul Barans and Donald Davies idea of Packet switching. Roberts decided UCLA, Stranford Research Institute (SRI), University of Utah and the University of California would be the first four institutes to receive the IMPs for the network.

On July 1968 Larry Robert sent out a proposal for building the IMPs to over 140 companies and more that 12 responded.

Jerry Elkind was in charge of both the computer divisions at BBN when ARPA sent out the request for building the IMPs. Elkind suggested to Heart that he should gather some of the BBN workers to write out the proposal to ARPA. During the proposal, they stated that the IMP would be create using Honywell DDP-516’s because of its reliability and multiple function capability. Little did they know that the by the time they finished writing the proposal on September 6 1968, it would be over 200 pages long at a cost of over $100,000. The small close knitted group of workers would soon be referred as the IMP guy for their achievements in creating the first Information Message Processors.

Just a few days before Christmas, in 1968, the contract for building the IMPs, was awarded to Bolt Beranek and Newman,

Packet Switching