The Euronet

Despite its Europocentric name, the Euronet is in fact the dominant global computer network on Tripartite Alliance Earth. With an estimated six hundred million Euronet-capable terminals worldwide -- half of them connected at one point or another to the Euronet in the course of the year -- Tripartite Alliance Earth is a highly networked world.

On Tripartite Alliance Earth as on most other worlds, the prehistory of computing began with simple mechanical devices. In 1623 German scientist Wilhelm Schikard invented a machine that used sprocketed wheels to add numbers. Later, in 1642, French polymath Blaise Pascal invented a machine in 1642 that added and subtracted, automatically carrying and borrowing digits from column to column, though this machine were never anything other than curiosities owned by the wealthy. In the early 19th century French inventor Joseph-Marie Jacquard devised a specialized type of computer, a loom that wove fabrics based on patterns provided the machine in the form of punched cards. One notable early mechanical computer was the Difference Engine, designed in the early 1820's by British mathematician and scientist Charles Babbage. The Difference Engine was never constructed, as was the case on all other ITA member worlds save Prime. Convergent evolution has ensured that the key concepts behind the Difference Engine -- the capacity to store instructions, the use of punched cards as a primitive memory, the ability to print stored data -- are found in modern Euronet-capable computers. However, the idea of establishing computer networks -- of establishing permanent communication lines between computers, to ensure the rapid exchange of data -- had not come to term.

The first person to propose a computer network was arguably the British mathematician Alan Turing, in 1936. Turing proposed the idea of a machine -- now known as a Turing Machine -- that resembles an automatic typewriter that could process equations without human direction, using symbols for math and logic instead of letters. Turing argued that a sufficiently complex device could be used as a "universal machine" that could duplicate the function of any other existing machine. As a theoretical precursor to the modern digital computer, the basic concept of the Turing Machine was invaluable. However, in 1938 Turing expanded upon the Turing Machine, arguing from mathematical proofs that although some phenomena are too complex to be simulated by a single conceivable Turing Machine, a network of Turing Machines operating under the guidance of a central decision-making body could successfully simulate the phenomenon.

By the early 1940's, the field of electronics had advanced sufficiently to allow for the creation of computers not using mechanical parts. In 1939, the French physicist Antoine Saldini developed the Pascal I calculating machine, built by the new Société publique pour l'informatique (SPI). This electronic calculating machine used relays and electromagnetic components to replace mechanical components. In the Pascal II of 1940, Saldini used vacuum tubes and solid state transistors to manipulate the binary numbers. These new electronic computers were of invaluable use to the League of Nations in breaking enemy codes in the Second World War. In 1944, the Hungarian mathematician John von Neumann developed at SIP the Pascal IV, one of the first computers that could solve problems in mathematics, meteorology, economics, and hydrodynamics using a codified programming language.

After the Second World War, the basic technologies behind the Pascal series of calculating machines were internationalized by the League of Nations, and quickly acquired by the United States and the Soviet Union. The 1946 development, at SPI, of the inexpensive, energy-efficient, and reliable transistor revolutionized computer design worldwide. Governments and militaries worldwide used the new computers to manage their affairs and to engage in complex simulations. Private corporations worldwide quickly took up the new technology of transistor computers, and began to make it into a sellable technology. By the 1960's, such corporations like the French Thomson, the British Thames Business Machines, and the Argentine Plata Informatics managed to devise relatively modern and efficient computers. In 1964, the Japanese corporation of Toshiba had developed the integrated circuit -- a collection of tiny transistors and other components placed on a single chip. At first, silicon had been used as an inexpensive chip substrate, but the demands of the Japanese military for integrated circuits for military use that were resistant to the electromagnetic pulse produced by nuclear explosions led to the EMP-resistant material of gallium being used.

These compact and highly efficient integrated circuits -- known as microprocessors made immense breakthroughs in computing technology possible. Private companies and public organizations worldwide -- in the European Confederaton, in Argentina and Brazil, in Japan, and in the United States -- rushed out model after model of new computer. The wide variety of programming languages used by the different computers created an electronic "Tower of Babel," as organizations bought computers that were unable to talk to each other. In 1973, the International Electronic Communications Authority (AICE) was formed by the League of Nations, with the participation of the United States, in order to establish a common programming language and common design protocols in order to ensure intelligibility.

By the early 1970's, the intense competition between different computer manufacturers had driven prices down substantially. Many large companies had their own internal computer networks, with individual terminals for individual employees to use in manipulating databases and spreadsheets and writing text documents. These internal computer networks were centralized: Relatively "dumb" terminals were designed that were just barely capable of using computer programs run of powerful central computers, known as "servers." This type of computer network served as the prototype for the Euronet.

Throughout the 1970's, governments worldwide were concerned with the tasks of humanizing technology, and of making technology -- like all other requirements for life -- available to all people. Early in the decade, the rapid decline in computer prices made it possible, for the first time, for middle-class households to purchase their own simple computers, modelled upon the "dumb" terminals used for the past decade. In 1972, the French national government produced the famous White Paper on Communications. This government document argued that since it was within the technological capability and financial capacity of Europe to construct a public computer network, capable of including all French and European citizens, such a network should be constructed. This proposal caught the imagination of a European public grown skeptical of the space program; in their minds, this pan-European computer network would serve as the next grand projet. The Loi sur le Réseau informatique européen -- in English the Law on the European Informatics Network -- was passed by the European Parliament in 1973. Although many names were proposed for the network, eventually the English-language abbreviation Euronet was eventually adopted. Using existing communication lines, the first phase of the Euronet was completed by the end of 1975.

From the beginning, the Euronet was a centralized network. In a given area with a maximum of ten thousand subscribers, whether these subscribers lived in a dispersed rural community or a densely-populated urban neighbourhood, a powerful server computer was installed to serve its potential subscribers. On the server, the various programs that would be used by Euronet subscribers would be installed. In homes and government offices, primitive terminals were set up and connected to the server via dedicated phone lines.

Although the early terminals were quite slow, and the server-terminal network encountered many problems in its early stages, the Euronet proved to be enormously popular. The introduction of the Euro-1 terminal in 1976 led to a veritable boom of popularity. Relatively unintelligent, with only 64 kilooctets of memory, 16 colours, and a basic ability to run basic programs like word processing programs, the hardwired ability of the Euro-1 to interface with local Euronet servers made the first popular personal computer an immense marketing success. Likewise, the EurOS operation system developed by the United States firm Commodore Incorporated was acclaimed as the first computer interface that was easy for people to learn, complete with a EurOS programming language modelled on everyday French words.  By 1977, perhaps 15% of all European households and most government offices had a Euro-1 terminal, while three years later a third of European households had Euro-1 terminals.

As the Euronet and the Euro-1 grew in popularity, so did the services offered by the Euronet. The first incarnation of the Euronet could only accommodate users fluent in French, English, and German. By 1980, not only was the full range of Euronet services available in the Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Polish languages, but basic services were offered in all of the first official languages of Confederation member states, from Finnish to Albanian to Arabic (initially, written in Latin script).The 1980 introduction of the Euro-2 terminal -- a terminal that possessed a quicker microprocessor, 128 kilooctets of memory, and 64 preprogrammed colours -- met with the same acclaim as the Euro-1.

Even as the demand for servers in Europe grew faster than it could be satisfied, the Euronet expanded beyond Europe, spreading worldwide via the global fibre optic cable network. By 1981, a quarter of Argentine and Brazilian households had Euronet access in their homes, while there were a noticeable number of Euronet connections in major African cities like Dakar, Abidjan, Lagos and Cape Town. Japan and Australia also launched their own copies of the Euronet, linked via satellite to the main Euronet network.

The Third World War halted the development of the Euronet for the rest of the 1980's, as people who were once entranced by the Euronet's potential were forced to concern themselves with simple survival. Although the Euronet remained active, the only significant development in Euronet technology was the invention by a Belgian informatics cooperative of creating memory banks attached to servers that would serve as a location to post permanent Euronet-based documents. These public text pages -- programmed in the EurOS 2.0 programming language -- became popular for anyone who had the time to construct them. They also made it possible for many institutions -- universities and colleges, for instance -- to conduct their affairs over long distances. By the end of the 1980's, it was possible to acquire a degree entirely over the Euronet at many European universities.

In 1989, rights to the EurOS 2.0 operating system were formally vested in the Euronet Consortium, operating out of Genève. As the worldwide economic recovery began, the programmers of the Euronet Consortium worked on developing a new kind of interface, what on other worlds is called a graphical user interface -- a visually appealing way to represent computer commands and data on the screen, combining iconic pictures that represent programs with separate pages that contain an open file or program. Information on the screen was controlled by a pointing device known as a mouse. Called EurOS Imageries, this new operating system made it easier than ever for people to use computers.

The early 1990's saw the continued economic recovery of the world, aided partly by the easier communications allowed by the Euronet and the development of Euronet-capable communications links worldwide. The 1992-5 South American Community Infrastructure program created a continental fibre optics network, while a combination of fibre optics and satellite relays did the same for Japan, Australia, Mexico, and Egypt. In 1995, the Euro-3 terminal was introduced. Compatible with EurOS Imageries and the Euronet, the Euro-3 possessed one megaoctet of memory and more than a thousand colours at a cost of only 3000 écus.

Upon first contact with the ITA in 1998, the Euronet Consortium learned, much to its dismay, that the technologies used in the Euronet were relatively simple. There existed the very real possibility that the Euronet might be discarded entirely by a world that sought to acquire the latest in InterWorldNet-compatible computer technologies. The Consortium enlisted the Marketplace corporation of IBM and the Communautaire firm Messageries à la Mode to develop a new terminal, the Euro-4, which would be compatible with both Euronet and InterWorldNet protocols while incorporating relatively advanced processing capabilities. Before its release, though, the Euro-4 was preempted by the Europa 2000. The Europa 2000 was a clone of the Euro series, using EurOS and EurOS Imageries and capable of full interaction with the Euronet, while possessing advanced graphics and memory capabilities and a Marketplace-style hard drive. At an opening cost of 1500 écus -- dropping to 1100 écus by the end of the year thanks to extensive subcontracting to local manufacturers in West Africa, Egypt, and Korea -- the Europa 2000 beat the proposed price for the Euro-4 substantially. Apparently after weighing the costs of a lawsuit on copyright infringement, the Euronet Consortium decided to make EurOS and EurOS Imageries open source code, available free of charge to anyone who wanted it, and to allow the manufacture of Euronet-compatible terminals.

The future of the Euronet in the 21st century is still uncertain. The donation of Euronet source code to the public domain has allowed anyone with a sufficiently powerful computer to access the Euronet, while the competition between different manufacturing firms on Tripartite Alliance Earth in marketing more complex and less expensive computers can only serve to democratize access to the Euronet. At the same time, it is entirely possible that the new temptations of the InterWorldNet might kill the Euronet before the beginning of the 22nd century. Whatever the Euronet's fate, though, it is assured of an important place in Tripartite Alliance Earth's computing history.

¹Octet: One byte. back