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Computing perspectives: the rise of the VLSI processor

Around 1970 Intel discovered it could put 2,000 transistors—or perhaps a few more—on a single NMOS chip. In retrospect, this may be said to mark the beginning of very large-scale integration (VLSI), an event which had been long …

Real-time data acquisition at mission control

Perhaps one of the most powerful symbols of the United States' technological prowess is the Mission Control Center (MCC) at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston. The rooms at Mission Control have been witness to major …

An empirical study of the reliability of UNIX utilities

The following section describes the tools we built to test the utilities. These tools include the fuzz (random character) generator, ptyjig (to test interactive utilities), and scripts to automate the testing process. Next, we …

Experiences with the Amoeba distributed operating system

The Amoeba project is a research effort aimed at understanding how to connect multiple computers in a seamless way [16, 17, 26, 27, 31]. The basic idea is to provide the users with the illusion of a single powerful timesharing …

Diffusion in computing networks: the case of BITNET

Using BITNET as a model, the author examines the adoption pattern of computing networks from the perspectives of innovation diffusion theory and economics.

Inside RISKS: risks in medical electronics

The RISKS Forum has had many accounts of annoying errors, expensive breakdowns, privacy abuses, security breaches, and potential safety hazards. However, postings describing documented serious injuries or deaths that scan be  …