On Mon, 3 Aug 1998, Daniel A. Seagraves wrote:
> [IMP?]
>
> That means Interface Messaging Prcessor.
> For connecting things to the ARPAnet.
>
> Not sure what it did, but it's mentioned in the ITS arcana...
Back in the day before standards (late 60s) the designers of the Arpanet
decided they needed a uniform network interface that all the different
computer systems of the time could connect to. The IMP was that
interface. It was actually a computer itself that acted as a gateway,
passing data to and from the host computer from the nascent Internet. It
handled the protocol conversion, etc.
It was the equivalent of a NIC today.
Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar_at_siconic.com
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Received on Mon Aug 03 1998 - 15:19:33 BST