Title
Cisco Heritage Project oral history panel : Tom Rindfleisch and Ed FeigenbaumCatalog Number
102739979Type
DocumentDescription
Two important Stanford University figures, Ed Feigenbaum of the Artificial Intelligence lab and Thomas Rinfsfleisch, head of IT services for thirty years, were jointly interviewed about the origins of networking on campus, including how that eventually led to Cisco’s founding. This is a chapter long disputed with various combatants regarding who ‘invented the router’, who ‘owned it’, and what some of the various claims are. Rindfleisch established the SUMEX-AIM facility at Stanford, a pioneering facility in terms of its national networking capability for multiple universities. This gave rise to multiple approaches for connectivity, for “real work” as Feigenbaum explains it. ARPANet, XeroxPARC, Tymnet, FTP, Appletalk, TCP—all are discussed in some detail.Key figures—Josh Lederberg, Les Earnest, Bill Yeager, and Ralph Gorin all are described for their roles. And the angst about ‘who owned what’ and the various perspectives that were extant at the time, is given considerable discussion. Also, the interactions of Heils Reimer and the Stanford Office of Technology Licensing (OTL), and data re Silicon Graphics, Sun Microsystems, Imagen, and other companies that emerged from Stanford’s campus are covered. Jim Clark, John Hennessey, and Andy Bechtolsheim are discussed in this context, as well as Sandy Lerner and Len Bosack. Kirk Lougheed, Mark Crispin, and Bill Yeager are depicted also.
Date
2014-08-14Contributor
| Feigenbaum, Edward, Panelist |
| House, Charles H., Moderator |
| Rindfleisch, Thomas C., Panelist |
