John Murphy (engineer)
John Murphy | |
|---|---|
| Born | John Anthony Murphy 1943 |
| Alma mater | University of Notre Dame |
| Occupation(s) | Inventor, Engineer, Computer Scientist |
| Employer(s) | Datapoint, Telex, Performance Technologies |
| Known for | Developer of ARCNET, the first commercial local area network |
John A. Murphy is an American inventor and computer engineer credited with inventing ARCNET, the first commercial networking system, in 1976.[1] He was working for Datapoint Corporation at the time.[2] His biography appeared in the IT History Society website.[3]
Background and career
[edit]Originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma, Murphy graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1965 with a B.S. degree in electrical engineering.[4][3] He first worked at IBM, then Motorola, Telex, and Singer Business Machines before joining Datapoint, where he led design of the computer networking system ARCNET.[5] Victor Poor had established the R&D function at Datapoint as industry leading: with Harry Pyle, Poor co-created the architecture that was ultimately implemented in the first successful computer microprocessor, the Intel 8008.
ARCNET
[edit]Developed in 1976, ARCNET (Attached Resource Computer NETwork) was the first widely available networking system for microcomputers.[1]
Datapoint had pioneered microprocessors; the challenge ARCNET addressed was how to facilitate the efficient transmission of information between different machines.[6] In an interview with Len Shustek for the Computer History Museum, Murphy notes that Datapoint took ARCNET from concept to reality in "under a year and probably very much under a year."[7] As the first commercial local area network, ARCNET found early success, but corporate struggles at Datapoint led to slower adoption in the 1980s, relative to other commercial alternatives like Ethernet.[8] According to Techopedia, "ARCnet was the first simple networking based solution that provided for all kinds of transmission regardless of the transmission medium or the type of computer."[9]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Horak, Ray (2008). Webster's New World Telecom Dictionary. John Wiley & Sons. p. 37. ISBN 978-0471774570.
- ^ Bhattacharyya, Siddhartha (30 April 2015). Handbook of Research on Swarm Intelligence in Engineering. IGI Global. pp. 508–. ISBN 978-1-4666-8292-4.
- ^ a b "1965 University of Notre Dame Graduates in the News: John A. Murphy – Inventor of ARCnet, the first LAN". notredamestoriesandstuff.blogspot.com. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
- ^ Len Shustek; Harry J. Saal (3 June 2004). John Murphy Oral History. Computer History Museum. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
{{cite book}}:|website=ignored (help) - ^ "John Murphy". IT History Society Honor Roll. 21 December 2015. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
- ^ Wood, Lamont (2013). Datapoint: The Lost Story of the Texans Who Invented the Personal Computer Revolution. Hugo House Publishers. ISBN 978-1936449361.
- ^ "Transcript- John Murphy" (PDF). Computer History Museum. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
- ^ von Burg, Urs (2001). The Triumph of Ethernet: Technological Communities and the Battle for the LAN Standard. Stanford University Press. p. 158. ISBN 080474095X.
- ^ "Attached Resource Computer Network (ARCNET)". Techopedia. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
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