Information Processing Techniques Office

The Information Processing Techniques Office (usually given as IPTO) was an element of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the primary funder of computer research in the US for many years.

Under IPTO's first head, J. C. R. Licklider, and his successors, IPTO launched an incomparable list of projects which have basically created the computers of today, which in their turn have changed entire societies:

• time-sharing (CTSS, Multics, and Berkeley Time-Sharing System; ancestors of, and inspirations for, UNIX);
• user interface (graphical user interfaces and the mouse);
• data networking (the ARPANET and Internet);
• VLSI

Among the bodies funded by IPTO were:

• BBN
• Project MAC
• AI Lab
• LCS
• SAIL
• Project Genie
• SRI
• ISI

Further reading

• Arthur L. Norberg, Judy E. O'Neill; Transforming Computer Technology: Information Processing for the Pentagon, 1962-1986; Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 2000

External links

• Information Processing Techniques Office