In 1966 IBM mainframes could only connect to other IBM mainframes, Burroughs only to other Burroughs, etc. Beginning in 1967 the US Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) office sponsored development of a "heterogeneous" network compatible with computers from any manufacturer.
That R&D effort, one of the most successful in history, resulted in the on-time, on-budget construction of the revolutionary ARPANET, the immediate predecessor of today's Internet.
The ARPANET Sourcebook: The Unpublished Foundations of the Internet reproduces the seminal papers, reports, and RFCs that led to the birth of modern network computing. Most appear here in book form for the first time.
Part A, Imagining the ARPANET
Part B, Planning the ARPANET
Part C, Building the ARPANET
