In 1971, Spain became a "world leader in packet-switched networks (...) the same technology that powers the Internet today," beating the USA by three years.

Posted by amogusdevilman@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 20 comments

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IWishIDidntHave2@reddit

I mean, Donald Davies had invented most of the underpinning technologies back in 67, had demonstrated them by 68 and built a network in 69.

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oh yeah, i forgot to use the word "public" on the title, this was the first public network in the world probably, although computers were way out of the average person's budget, way more than the USA if anything

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IWishIDidntHave2@reddit

Ah, in which case, fair point!

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AustriaModerator@reddit

i cannot unsee the star of david

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dagelijksestijl@reddit

I cannot unsee the pentagram

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ProperEye8285@reddit

(Sung to the tune of Willy Wonka's "the Candy Man")

"The Satanist can, 'cuz he draws a pentagram and kills a goat inside."

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wootybooty@reddit

Oh that sounds like the Primus cover! /s/

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jim420@reddit

This again. It was one of the first "commercial" networks, as stated in the PDF. They also wrote it was based on Arpanet tech, which was an older non-commercial network already running. You know... that network that kicked off the thing that eventually became the Internet? That one.

And the PDF also has the wrong date for Tymshare's TYMNET in the US. It was developed in 1969(?)-1970 and the network went up and stayed up in November 1971. However, in "TYMNET-A Serendipitous Evolution", it is written that TYMNET "is presently in service using 80 Tymshare-built TYMSAT communication computers." That paper was published in IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. COM-20, NO. 3, June 1972; presented at the 2nd Symposium on Problems in the Optimization of Data Communications Systems, Palo Alto, CA. October 20-22, 1971; and the manuscript was received May 10, 1971. So it was already being used by Tymshare customers for a time.

The PDF chart shows both TYMNET and TELENET as commissioned in 1975. In Feb. 1972 the National Library of Medicine became TYMNET's first external customer. I have no idea where they got 1975 from. But I do believe it is correct for TELENET.

The title makes no sense. But I didn't Google translate the entire PDF so if I'm missing something important or got something wrong then please yell at me.

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Any_Strain7020@reddit

I wonder what purposes it served during the dictatorship. Faster secret police file exchanges? :-/

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Bits_Passats@reddit

Maybe, but I think the principal users would have been banks and universities.

At least that would lead to the establishment of the tech park at Cerdanyola del Vallès, dubbed "the Spanish Silicon Valley" locally...

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Brave_Assumption6@reddit

¡Arriba España!

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BrainCurrent8276@reddit

With all the gold stolen from South America, I would expect more from Spaniards.

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displayboi@reddit

Most of it was given to the Russians for safekeeping during the civil war and never returned.

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BrainCurrent8276@reddit

oh really?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Gold_(Spain)

Was it mostly gold accumulated during I World War?

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jombrowski@reddit

Intercactus

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amogusdevilman@reddit (OP)

“Internationally, the first public packet-switched data network to be established after the Spanish one was the Telenet network in the U.S. three years later, in 1974, and the Transpac network in France seven years later, in 1978. That is why a report by the U.S. Department of Commerce in the early 1970s stated: “Spain has one of the most technologically advanced data transmission networks in the world (…) most developed countries are still in the experimental phase or have only just begun to develop networks that use the same packet-switching technology as Spain’s.”

https://www.telefonica100.com/year/1971

https://www.coit.es/sites/default/files/archivobit/pdf/tecnoinfante1.pdf

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Kurgan_IT@reddit

Just to add that Itapac (on X25 protocol) in Italy was born much later in 1984.