Traditional computing center as a modern network node
Shelly Heller, Arnold M. Peskin · 1981
There is an obvious trend toward decentralization of computing power from the traditional, large computing center. Even so there remains a generous, but changing role for such centers to play. Their capabilities would then be complimentary to smaller, individualized facilities, so the user would benefit greatly from a general purpose, local network on which the large center represented a node. There is no network currently available that exhibits all the attributes of the ideal local for this environment. It can be approached, however, by combining several diverse products as network segments, which are interconnected via processor gateways. This is in fact the strategy being followed at Brookhaven National Laboratory, which has a computing environment typical of a large class of institutions. The attributes of the ideal network are presented. A brief discussion of the current state-of-the-art in networking is then given. Finally, the particulars of the Brookhaven implementation are offered as a case history.