IEEE Annals of the History of Computing

The history of Project MAC from its inception is reviewed. It is noted that the story of Project MAC is a continuation of that of CTSS (Compatible Time-Sharing System), marking the transfer of an experimental system into the practical academic field and thence into the commercial field. Two men were key to this recognition of the value of the work by Corbato et al.-J.C.R. Licklider and R.M. Fano. ... View full abstract»

Outside of the technological advances being made in time-sharing and interactive computing as well as the allied enterprises within Project MAC, there was a deep concern among the system designers about the cultural impact of placing a computer in the public domain. In a paper coauthored with E.E. David, Jr., in 1965 and in another published in 1967, R. Fano commented on such current concerns as u... View full abstract»

The series of 'Time-Sharing System Scorecards' published from 1965-7 by the Computer Research Corp. chronicles the development of time-sharing systems in research organizations (universities and laboratories) and the expectations for commercial offerings. The last of these scorecards (reproduced in the article) shows a stage of development when time-sharing was still new enough to be a research ef... View full abstract»