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.ltr Mr. Walter Luse,14 May 1974
Digital Equipment Corporation
200 Forest Street
Marlborough, Mass. 01752
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SUBJECT:  Timesharing Monitor Development

REFERENCE:

1.  R. E. Gorin, R. P. Helliwell, J. B. Rubin, "Goals for Timesharing",
Memo, 22 February 1974.
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Dear Walter:

This note follows our telephone conversation of 13 May.

As you know, we have been planning for some time to acquire or develop
an improved timesharing system for use in our laboratory.  Discussions
between Ralph Gorin and Jeff Rubin of our staff and members of your staff
over the past six months indicate a substantial intersection of interests.

In the past, our group has developed a sequence of display-oriented
timesharing systems, initially on a PDP-1 and subsequently on PDP-6 and
PDP-10 processors.  The latter system currently operates with
67 display terminals of various types.

We recently inherited a BBN Pager and had tentatively planned to modify the
TENEX monitor, but found it to have a shakier foundation than we desire.
There are several areas that we would like to see improved [see Reference],
particularly additions to the file system and display services.
We also look forward to exploiting advanced processor hardware.

Based on earlier discussions, we propose to augment your VIROS in the areas of
keyboard service and display generation and make the results available to
you.  We would like to redesign the file system,
but are willing to let your group run with that ball if you head in the
right direction.  We also plan to add realtime service.

I understand that you wish the contents of VIROS to remain confidential
for some time and are worried about our ability to keep secrets.  While
it is not possible to absolutely preclude leakage, I believe that the
probability can be made acceptably low by taking the following steps.
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1.  All files connected with the project will be protected and kept
in passworded file areas.

2.  Each of the four or so individuals working on the project (currently
expected to be Ralph Gorin, Jeff Rubin, Brian Harvey, and Prof. Forest Baskett)
will sign a
written agreement not to disclose your files or their substance to others
either within our laboratory or outside.
.end

While file protection does not absolutely guarantee security, quite a bit
of inside knowledge is needed to get around the locks.  The only individuals
who are likely to be able to do it are a few of the people in our laboratory
who, I think, can be kept under control.  The resistance of our system
to attack has been substantially improved in recent months in response
to troublemakers on the ARPAnet.

The proposed non-disclosure agreement would presumably cover only DEC
software, not the subsystems developed here.  In particular, there should
be freedom to discuss display service and local device service features
among our staff.

If the general approach outlined above appears plausible to you, I suggest
that you pluck a suitable non-disclosure agreement out of your files and
send us a copy.  If, on the other hand, you feel that you can't cooperate,
please let us know promptly so that we can get on with an alternate plan.
I hope that we can work it out.

.lde
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cc: Forest Baskett, Ralph Gorin, John McCarthy, Jeff Rubin, Fred Wilhelm (DEC)