ben (12/10/82)
#N:pur-ee:4500006:000:2624
pur-ee!ben Dec 9 14:39:00 1982
The news that was posted to net.followup November 11,
1982 by Mr. Rick Adams concerning the development of the
Purdue Engineering Computer Network contained false and
damaging statements regarding several Purdue University,
School of Electrical Engineering faculty members. It is
absolutely imperative that the facts concerning the issues
to which Mr. Adams referred be clearly established.
The development of the Engineering Computer Network was
initiated and conducted by the School of Electrical
Engineering. Network design and implementation was the work
of W.J. Croft, G.H. Goble and W.R. Simmons, who were
employed by the School for that purpose.
Two years after the Network became operational,
material still had not been prepared which would share our
experiences with the cmputer community. As a result,
Electrical Engineering faculty members K. Hwang, B.W. Wah,
and F.A. Briggs were asked by me, as a service to the
School, to prepare publication material in conjunction with
the designers. Two papers resulted from their efforts:
In May, 1981, a preliminary paper entitled,
"Engineering Computer Network (ECN): A Hardwired Net-
work of UNIX Computer Systems," appeared in the AFIPS
CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS. This paper did not include
W.J. Croft, G.H. Goble or W.R. Simmons as authors. The
latter two had requested that they not be included; and
because of this, W.J. Croft, who had left the employ-
ment of Purdue University some 16 months earlier, was
not specifically contacted.
As a result of the interest in the first paper, a
more extensive paper entitled, "A UNIX-Based Local Com-
puter Network with Load Balancing," was prepared by all
participants. This appeared in the April, 1982, issue
of COMPUTER with all participants (K. Hwang, W.J.
Croft, G.H. Goble, B.W. Wah, F.A. Briggs, W.R. Simmons,
and C.L. Coates) as co-authors.
Purdue University viewed as extremely serious the pub-
lic maligning with false information of the reputations of
staff members who were acting as requested by their supervi-
sor. In this instance, disciplinary action was immediate.
C.L. Coates
Head, School of Electri-
cal Engineering
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN 47907
December 9, 1982