Editing Project Athena (section)

== History ==
In 1979 Dertouzos proposed to university president [[Jerome Wiesner]] that the university network mainframe computers for student use. At that time MIT used computers throughout its research, but undergraduates did not use computers except in Course VI (computer science) classes. With no interest from the rest of the university, the [[MIT School of Engineering|School of Engineering]] in 1982 approached DEC for equipment for itself. President [[Paul E. Gray]] and the [[MIT Corporation]] wanted the project to benefit the rest of the university, and IBM agreed to donate equipment to MIT except to the engineering school.<ref name="garfinkel19881112">{{cite news | url=http://simson.net/clips/1989/1989.TechRev.Athena.pdf | title=A Second Wind for Athena | work=Technology Review | date=November–December 1988 | access-date=25 January 2016 | last=Garfinkel | first=Simson L. | author-link=Simson Garfinkel}}</ref>

Project Athena began in May 1983. Its initial goals were to:<ref name="6.933J">{{cite web |url=http://web.mit.edu/6.933/www/final.pdf |title=Project Athena Success in Engineering Projects|date=1999 |website=web.mit.edu |access-date=2020-08-01}}</ref>
* Develop computer-based learning tools that are usable in multiple educational environments
* Establish a base of knowledge for future decisions about educational computing
* Create a computational environment supporting multiple hardware types
* Encourage the sharing of ideas, code, data, and experience across MIT

The project intended to extend computer power into fields of study outside computer science and engineering, such as foreign languages, economics, and political science. To implement these goals, MIT decided to build a [[Unix]]-based [[distributed computing]] system. Unlike those at [[Carnegie Mellon University]], which also received the IBM and DEC grants, students did not have to own their own computer; MIT built [[computer lab]]s for their users, although the goal was to put networked computers into each dormitory. Students were required to learn [[Fortran|FORTRAN]] and [[Lisp (programming language)|Lisp]],{{r|brann19840320}} and would have access to [[3M computer]]s, capable of 1 million [[instructions per second]] and with 1 [[megabyte]] of [[RAM]] and a 1 [[megapixel]] display.<ref name="6.933J"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://web.mit.edu/acs/athena.html|title=athena.html|work=mit.edu}}</ref>

Although IBM and DEC computers were hardware-incompatible, Athena's designers intended that software would run similarly on both. MIT did not want to be dependent on one vendor at the end of Athena. Sixty-three DEC [[VAX-11/750]] servers were the first timesharing clusters. "Phase II" began in September 1987, with hundreds of [[IBM RT PC]] [[workstation]]s replacing the VAXes, which became [[fileserver]]s for the workstations. The DEC-IBM division between departments no longer existed. Upon logging into a workstation, students would have immediate access to a universal set of files and programs via central services. Because the workstation used a [[thin client]] model, the user interface would be consistent despite the use of different hardware vendors for different workstations. A small staff could maintain hundreds of clients.{{r|garfinkel19881112}}{{r|mihalik19990413}}

The project spawned many technologies that are widely used today, such as the [[X Window System]] and [[Kerberos (protocol)|Kerberos]]. Among the other technologies developed for Project Athena were the [[Zephyr (protocol)|Zephyr Notification Service]] and the [[Hesiod (name service)|Hesiod]] name and directory service.<ref name="Athena Network Services"/>

{{asof|1988|11}} MIT had 722 workstations in 33 private and public clusters on and off campus, including [[List of MIT fraternities, sororities, and ILGs|student living groups and fraternities]]. A survey found that 92% of undergraduates had used the Athena workstations at least once, and 25% used them every day.{{r|garfinkel19881112}}<ref name="garfinkel19890203">{{cite news | url=http://simson.net/clips/1989/1989.TechRev.Athena.pdf | title=Students Log On to ATHENA | work=Technology Review | date=Feb–Mar 1989 | access-date=25 January 2016 | last=Garfinkel | first=Simson L. | pages=7–10 | author-link=Simson Garfinkel}}</ref> The project received an extension of three years in January 1988. Developers who had focused on creating the operating system and [[Educational software#Courseware|courseware]] for various educational subjects now worked to improve Athena's stability and make it more [[user friendly]]. When Project Athena ended in June 1991, MIT's IT department took it over and extended it into the university's research and administrative divisions.<ref name="mihalik19990413"/>

In 1993, the IBM RT PC workstations were retired, being replaced by Sun [[SPARCclassic]], [[IBM RS/6000]] POWERstation 220, and Personal [[DECstation]] 5000 Model 25 systems.<ref name="thetech19930721_athena">{{ cite news | url=https://archive.org/details/mit_the_tech_newspaper-v113-i30/mode/1up | title=Athena Upgrades To SPARCs, DECs | work=The Tech | last1=Saginaw | first1=Michael A. | date=21 July 1993 | access-date=22 March 2024 | pages=1,9 }}</ref> {{asof|1999|04}} the MIT campus had more than 1300 Athena workstations, and more than 6000 Athena users logged into the system daily.<ref name="mihalik19990413">{{cite news | url=http://tech.mit.edu/V119/N19/history_of_athe.19f.html | title=Project Athena / MIT's Computing Environment Has Grown from an Experiment to an Impressive, Ubiquitous Network | work=The Tech | date=13 April 1999 | access-date=29 October 2013 | last1=Mihalik | first1=Aaron D. | page=6 | archive-date=31 October 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131031233747/http://tech.mit.edu/V119/N19/history_of_athe.19f.html | url-status=dead }}</ref> Athena is still used by many in the MIT community through the computer labs scattered around the campus. It is also now available for installation on personal computers, including laptops.