Project Athena facts for kids

Athena, a graphical control element library

Project Athena was a big project started by MIT, along with two companies, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and IBM. Their goal was to create a special computer system for students and teachers across the whole campus. It began in 1983 and continued until 1991. Even today, in 2023, MIT still uses parts of Project Athena!

The system works like software that turns a computer into a "thin client". This means the computer downloads programs and tools for learning from MIT's main computers whenever someone needs them.

Project Athena was very important for how computers work today, especially for desktop computers and systems where many computers are connected. It helped create famous technologies like the X Window System, Kerberos (a security system), and the Zephyr Notification Service (like an early instant messaging). It also influenced ideas like thin computing, LDAP (for finding information on networks), Active Directory (for managing computer networks), and instant messaging.

What Was Project Athena?
How Project Athena Started
How the System Worked
Learning with Athena
Educational Software
How Athena Helped Develop Computer Systems
Athena Outside MIT
See also

What Was Project Athena?

Project Athena was a huge effort, costing $50 million over five years. Important leaders at MIT, like Michael Dertouzos and Joel Moses, helped guide it.

The companies involved, DEC and IBM, gave a lot of equipment and support:

DEC provided over 300 computer terminals, 1600 small computers, 63 larger mini-computers, and five employees.
IBM contributed 500 small computers, 500 powerful workstations, software, five employees, and money.

How Project Athena Started

In 1979, Michael Dertouzos suggested that MIT connect its main computers for students to use. At that time, only computer science students used computers regularly. The rest of the university wasn't very interested.

So, in 1982, the School of Engineering asked DEC for computer equipment just for their students. But the president of MIT, Paul E. Gray, wanted the project to help the whole university. That's when IBM agreed to donate equipment to other parts of MIT, not just the engineering school.

Project Athena officially began in May 1983. Its main goals were:

To create computer tools for learning that could be used in many different classes.
To learn more about how computers could help with education.
To build a computer system that could work with different types of hardware.
To encourage sharing of ideas, computer code, and experiences across MIT.

The project aimed to bring computer power to subjects beyond just computer science, like foreign languages, economics, and politics. To do this, MIT decided to build a system based on Unix that connected many computers together.

Unlike at Carnegie Mellon University, where students had to own their own computers, MIT built computer labs for students to use. The idea was to eventually put networked computers in every student dorm. Students were also expected to learn programming languages like Fortran and Lisp. They would use advanced computers called "graphical workstations" that were very powerful for their time.

How the System Worked

Even though IBM and DEC computers were different, Athena's designers wanted the software to work the same on both. MIT didn't want to rely on just one company.

At first, 63 DEC VAX-11/750 servers were used. Later, in 1987, hundreds of IBM RT PC workstations replaced the VAXes, which then became fileservers (computers that store files for others).

When students logged into a workstation, they could immediately access all their files and programs from central services. Because the workstations used a "thin client" model, the way users interacted with the computers felt the same, even if the actual hardware was different. This made it easy for a small team to manage hundreds of computers.

Project Athena led to many technologies we use widely today. These include the X Window System (which helps display graphics on computers) and Kerberos (a system for secure logins). Other technologies developed were the Zephyr Notification Service and the Hesiod name and directory service.

By November 1988, MIT had 722 workstations in 33 computer labs, both on and off campus, including in student living groups. A survey found that 92% of students had used Athena at least once, and 25% used it every day.

The project got an extension until June 1991. After that, MIT's IT department took over Athena and expanded it to other parts of the university.

In 1993, the IBM RT PC workstations were replaced with newer computers from Sun and IBM. By April 1999, MIT had over 1300 Athena workstations, and more than 6000 users logged in daily. Athena is still used today in computer labs and can even be installed on personal computers.

Learning with Athena

Athena is still used today to provide a common computer platform for learning at MIT. It was designed to be easy to operate, partly by using the "thin client" idea and standard computer setups. This made it easier to set up, update software, and fix problems.

Access to the Athena system has grown a lot. In 1991, most access was in public computer labs. Now, students can use Athena in their dormitories, fraternities and sororities, and other living groups. Many dorms have "quick login" kiosks for short computer use.

Originally, Athena used Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) as its main operating system. Later versions, like Athena 9, switched to Red Hat Enterprise Linux on cheaper computers. Athena 9 also updated the desktop look to a more modern GNOME desktop. Athena 10 is now based on Ubuntu Linux.

Educational Software

The first idea for Project Athena was to create special software for different classes. Today, computers are mostly used for general programs like email, word processing, and graphics.

However, Athena has had a big impact on education by helping integrate other software into classes. Programs like Maple and MATLAB are used in many science and engineering courses. Teachers expect students to use these programs for projects and homework.

More specialized software is also used on Athena for specific subjects. This includes rendering software for architecture and computer graphics, molecular modeling software for chemistry, and professional software used by engineers.

How Athena Helped Develop Computer Systems

Project Athena wasn't mainly a research project. Its main goal was to create a good computer environment for education. But because they were building something so advanced, it attracted a lot of funding from companies.

Athena made very important contributions to the technology of "distributed computing" (where many computers work together). These contributions happened as a side effect of solving a real educational problem.

Some of the advanced ideas and designs that Athena helped create include:

The Client–server model, where computers request services from a central server.
Thin client (stateless) desktops, which don't store much information themselves.
A campus-wide security system (Kerberos) for secure logins.
A naming service (Hesiod) to find resources on the network.
The X Window System, widely used in the Unix world.
An early Instant messaging system (Zephyr).
A system for managing the entire network (Moira Service Management System).
An online help system (OLH).
A public bulletin board system (Discuss).

Many ideas from Athena's "online consultant" (a help system) are now found in popular help desk software.

Because Athena offered unique benefits, its use spread beyond MIT. The software was made available for free. Digital Equipment Corporation even created a product called DECAthena, which was used by many universities and companies.

The way Athena was designed also influenced other major computer systems. For example, the Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) software was based on Athena's ideas. Later, Microsoft's Windows NT operating system used Kerberos and other design features first seen in Athena.

Athena Outside MIT

Pixar Animation Studios, the company famous for animated movies, used computers from Project Athena for some of the early rendering of their short film The Adventures of André and Wally B.
Iowa State University has its own version of Athena called "Project Vincent."
North Carolina State University also uses a version of Athena called "Eos/Unity."
Carnegie Mellon University started a similar system called Project Andrew which created AFS, which Athena now uses for its file system.
University of Maryland, College Park also used a version of Athena called WAM (Workstations at Maryland) and Glue, now known as "TerpConnect."