
The Internet Message Processor (IMP)
The Honeywell Series 16 (H-316 and H-516) takes its origin in 1966
from the acquisition of one of the first minicomputers companies,
CCC, the Computer Control Company.
The H-316, followed by the H-516, was announced in 1969 with a base
price of under $10,000. The Honeywell 516, in a hardened form for
military use, was the basis of the IMP (Interface Message Processor)
for the ArpaNet, the ancestor of the Internet. There's even a poem
by R. Merryman at UCSD (RFC 527); you may have read it:
Twas brillig, and the Protocols
Did USER-SERVER in the wabe.
All mimsey was the FTP,
And the RJE outgrabe,
Beware the ARPANET, my son;
The bits that byte, the heads that scratch;
Beware the NCP, and shun
the frumious system patch,
He took his coding pad in hand;
Long time the Echo-plex he sought.
When his HOST-to-IMP began to limp
he stood a while in thought,
And while he stood, in uffish thought,
The ARPANET, with IMPish bent,
Sent packets through conditioned lines,
And checked them as they went,
One-two, one-two, and through and through
The IMP-to-IMP went ACK and NACK,
When the RFNM came, he said "I'm game",
And sent the answer back,
Then hast thou joined the ARPANET?
Oh come to me, my bankrupt boy!
Quick, call the NIC! Send RFCs!
He chortled in his joy.
Twas brillig, and the Protocols
Did USER-SERVER in the wabe.
All mimsey was the FTP,
And the RJE outgrabe.
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