History of computers, part 2 — TCP/IP owes a lot to Xerox PUP

An interview with Robert Taylor, former manager of Xerox PARC, shows TCP/IP designs were based a lot on the PARC Universal Packet (PUP) networking protocol suite.

To understand where we are going, we first must understand where we have been. This applies equally well to the history of nations across the globe as it does to computers and computer networking.

With that in mind, we’re taking a slow (somewhat meandering) stroll through the history of how computers talk to each other. Last time, we talked a bit about d…