Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration (initially named the Advanced Research Projects Administration; generally referred to as DARPA and ARPA) 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 its 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 and Multics);
• user interface (graphics and the mouse);
• data networking (the ARPANET and Internet);
• VLSI

Among the bodies funded by DARPA were:

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

Further reading

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