Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
From Computer History Wiki
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (initially named the Advanced Research Projects Agency; generally referred to as DARPA and ARPA - the acronym form is sometimes incorrectly expanded to {Defense} Advanced Research Projects Administration) was a branch of the US Department of Defense which was, through its Information Processing Techniques Office (usually given as IPTO), 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 DARPA were:
Further reading
- Arthur L. Norberg, Judy E. O'Neill; Transforming Computer Technology: Information Processing for the Pentagon, 1962-1986; Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 2000
