High-speed packet switching network to link computers

Virtually all of the experiments conducted at CERN use minicomputers today; some simply acquire data and store results on magnetic tape while others actually control experiments and help to process the resulting data. Currently there are more than two hundred minicomputers being used in the laboratory. In order to provide the minicomputer users with access to facilities available on mainframes and also to provide intercommunication between various experimental minicomputers, CERN opted for a packet switching network back in 1975. It was decided to use Modcomp II computers as switching nodes. The only software to be taken was a communications-oriented operating system called Maxcom. Today eight Modcomp II 16-bit computers plus six newer Classic minicomputers from Modular Computer Services have been purchased for the CERNET data communications networks. The current configuration comprises 11 nodes connecting more than 40 user machines to one another and to the laboratory's central computing facility. (0 refs).