This all began with the DEW line. I worked at the lab years ago, and I believe it was Edwin L. Key as a guest of William W Ward that gave a very long and rather

This all began with the DEW line. I worked at the lab years ago, and I believe it was Edwin L. Key as a guest of William W Ward that gave a very long and rather entertaining Friday morning lecture on the topic for us. Aside from the radar technology and logistics problems, there were three areas of computing innovation that came out of it. First, signal processing, which created demand for increasingly complicated circuits from Bell Labs. Second, the user interface to the data, which included both hacking large-format oscilloscopes into displays, and converting radar signals into sound. Third, the communications systems linking remote stations thousands of miles away. This was critical to be reliable during wireless jamming or wire cuts, so this was the front line of coding theory, including Fano and then Solomon at LL, leading to digital switching systems like Arpanet. My first job there was to implement Solomon’s work for a space communications system, so I’m a little more familiar with that line of work at the lab. I’m running heavily on memory here, but there is more information on this here: https://archive.ll.mit.edu/publications/journal/pdf/vol12_no2/12_2distantearly.pdf https://archive.ll.mit.edu/publications/journal/pdf/vol12_no...