PDF/READ Circuits, Packets, and Protocols: Entrepreneurs and Computer Communications,

Circuits, Packets, and Protocols: Entrepreneurs and Computer
Communications, 1968-1988 (ACM Books)
Description :
Circuits, Packets, and Protocols tells the story of the engineers,
entrepreneurs, investors, and visionaries who laid the groundwork
and built the foundations of the Internet.In the late 1960s, two
American corporate behemoths were poised to dominate the rapidly
converging industries of computing and communications--the
computer giant, IBM, and the regulated telecommunications
monopoly, AT&ampT But in 1968, a key ruling by the Federal

Communications Commission gave small businesses a doorway into
an emerging market for communication devices that could transmit
computer data over telephone lines. In the two decades that
followed, an industry of networking technology emerged that would
impact human history in profound and unfathomable ways. Circuits,
Packets, and Protocols is a groundbreaking study of the men and
women in the engineering labs, board rooms, and regulatory
agencies whose decisions determined the evolution of our modern
digital communication networks.Unlike histories that glorify the
dominant players with the benefit of hindsight, this is a history of a
pivotal era as it happened. Drawing on more than 80 interviews
recorded in 1988, the book features insights from now-famous
individuals such as Paul Baran, JCR Licklider, Vint Cerf, Louis Pouzin,
and Robert Metcalfe. Inspired by innovations from governmentsponsored
Cold War defense projects and the birth of the modern
venture capital industry, these trailblazers and many others built the
technologies and companies that became essential building blocks in
the development of today's Internet. Many of the companies and
products failed, even while they helped propel the industry forward
at breakneck speed. Equal parts academic history and thrilling
startup drama, Circuits, Packets, and Protocols gives the reader a
vivid picture of what it was like to take part in one of the most
exciting periods of technological advance in our time.