1976

1976


A self-portrait drawn by the Cray-1

DARPA supports computer scientists at UC Berkeley who are revising a Unix system to incorporate TCP/IP protocols. Berkeley Unix also incorporates a second set of Bell Labs protocols, called UUCP, for systems to use dial-up connections.

Seymour Cray demonstrates the first vector-processor supercomputer, the CRAY-1. The first customers include Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and NCAR. The CRAY-1 hardware is more compact and faster than previous supercomputers. No wire is more than 4 feet long, and the clock period is 12.5 nanoseconds (billionths of a second). The machine is cooled by freon circulated through stainless steel tubing bonded within vertical wedges of aluminum between the stacks of circuit boards (Cray patents the bonding process). The CRAY-1’s speed and power attract researchers, who want access to it over networks.

Vint Cerf moves from Stanford to DARPA to work with Bob Kahn on networking and the TCP/IP protocols.