Andrew is a project for personal computing in universities. Individual workstations communicate with shared processing elements. The system provides computer-aided instruction, computer-based tools, personal computer-mediated communication, and database retrieval services for its users. The paper outlines the history of Andrew, a joint project of Carnegie-Mellon University and IBM. Three major companies--the shared file system, the user interface, and the backbone network--are described at length in a tutorial style.

The 3–M machines (containing a million-instruction-per-second processor, a million display pixels, and a megabyte of memory) represent a significant landmark in personal computing power, and Andrew is a significant use of these machines. This paper will be a valuable historical reference and also a useful text for people designing networks of personal computers.