Computer networks and distributed computing

The earliest ideas for connecting multiple computers to form a network came about in the 1960’s. Shortly after, the ARPANET (the precursor to the Internet) was created. In the 1970’s, email was invented, which became the most widely used distributed application on the ARPANET. In these early days, the power of the network was mostly for sharing information by sending data from one computer to another on the other side of the country. Distributed computing became its own field of computer science in the 1970’s. So the study of how multiple computers could be used to solve larger problems than a single computer could solve was of great interest. This fledgling Internet connected the computing resources of numerous universities and government organizations, creating a large pool of compute power.

The ARPANET eventually grew into the Internet we know today, connecting millions of computers all across the globe. It powered the rise of the World Wide Web in the 1990’s, and today the Internet is a utility, much like electricity or water. It is available almost everywhere in the USA and also in most of the world. With more recent innovations in mobile computing and embedded systems, the Internet has become an integral component in modern life, not just in business.