US scientist Paul Baran, whose work in the 1960s helped pave the way for the internet, has died aged 84.
Mr Baran thought up the idea of making communication networks resilient to attack or traffic surges by splitting the data sent over them into chunks.
His pioneering work was carried out in connection with Cold War military research.
It would later form the basis of the academic network Arpanet which eventually led to the internet.
Nuclear strike
Mr Baran first put forward the idea of slicing data into "message blocks" and using a distributed system of nodes to pass them on when working at the Rand Corporation in the mid-1960s.
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more:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12879908RIP, Dr. Baran. :patriot:
Be sure to read down to the last para. :)