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ARPANET Interface Message Processor

ARPANET Interface Message Processor

Image creditFastLizard4
CC BY-SA 3.0 ↗

ARPANET Interface Message Processor

Year
1969
Creator
Bolt Beranek and Newman (IMP); Leonard Kleinrock and Charley Kline (UCLA); Bill Duvall (SRI)
Company
ARPA, UCLA, Stanford Research Institute
Location
3420 Boelter Hall, UCLA, Los Angeles; SRI, Menlo Park

Description

The Interface Message Processor, or IMP, was the small computer that switched packets at each ARPANET site. This is the front panel of the first IMP, which Bolt Beranek and Newman delivered to UCLA in 1969.

Importance

On October 29, 1969, this IMP carried the first network message from UCLA to the SRI computer in Menlo Park. SRI, the home of Engelbart's NLS, was the second ARPANET site and later ran its Network Information Center. The ARPANET became the base of the internet.

Interesting fact

The SRI system stopped after the letters L and O, so the first message on the ARPANET was lo.

Sources

  1. The Day the Infant Internet Uttered its First Words ↗Leonard Kleinrock, UCLA
  2. ARPANET ↗SRI International
  3. Milestones: Birthplace of the Internet, 1969 ↗IEEE, Engineering and Technology History Wiki · 2009-10-29
  4. Internet History of 1960s ↗Computer History Museum