250 Buckminster Drive Apartment 108 Norwood, MA 02062

May 1, 1992

Recipient

To Whom it may Concern;

I have been using computers since the summer of 1970 when I learned programming at a special course offered to high school students. Although the bulk of my experience is with DEC hardware and systems, I have used systems from many different vendors.

Programming Languages: My current programming is mostly in C on UNIX 4.3BSD and CGW, both running on DEC VAX architecture. I also do a substantial amount of writing of scripts utilizing awk, grep and other UNIX tools to perform quick analysis of collected data. Other high level languages which I have used for extended periods include Fortran, Cobol, Lisp, Basic, Algol, PL/1, Pascal, Ratfor and Mumps. I am similarly familiar with Assembly (or Macro) languages for DEC PDP8, PDP11, and VAX11, 8080/Z80 Micro Computers and NCR Century Mainframes. I have also used for short periods APL, Focal and Assembly language on Nova, 360 and PDP10.

Computer Hardware: I have extensive experience using DEC PDP8, PDP11, and VAX11, NCR Century, and MIT (CADR) Lisp Machines. Other machines which I have used include PDP10, Symbolics 3600 (Lisp Machine), and DG Nova.

System Programming: I have worked on several device interface packages, both for new hardware as well as for existing devices. I have assisted in the specification and debugging of new devices for the XDP-1, PDP11, and LSI11 as well as some which were driven through standard serial or parallel interfaces. I have also developed and maintained stand-alone operating system code used in a communications processor.

Networking and Communications: My knowledge of communications systems ranges from work with various network protocols (principally Chaos and DOD Internet, but including DECNet and others) to installation and maintenance of phone systems. I have had extensive experience with data communications including data PBX systems, modems, serial data interconnection, and high-speed LANs. I presently oversee all aspects of data communications in the MIT LCS (Approx. 300 networked machines) doing planning for the future, monitoring current activities and dealing with problems, as well as developing software to ease the use of the network by others .

Hardware Design: I have designed several hardware interfaces using existing designs as a base to work from. I have assisted others by reviewing designs or acting as a consultant to the actual designers.

System Management: I have acted as system manager on several different systems. I have experience with system hardware/software troubleshooting as well as installation and customization of software and hardware. I have worked with systems that involve several computers (networked together in some way) which required tracking down problems which are not localized to only one machine.

Sincerely,

Michael A. Patton