The author selects classic papers written by the computer scientists who made the major breakthroughs in concurrent programming. These papers cover the pioneering era of the field from the semaphores of the mid 1960s to the remote procedure calls of the late 1970s. The author summarizes the classic papers and puts them in historical perspective. A PROGRAMMING REVOLUTION This is the story of one of the major revolutions in computer programming: the invention of concurrent programming. Tom

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... and David Howarth pioneered the use of interrupts to simulate concurrent execution of several programs on the Atlas computer (Kilburn 1961) . This programming technique became known as multiprogramming. The early multiprogramming systems were programmed in assembly language without any conceptual foundation. The slightest programming mistake could make these systems behave in a completely erratic manner that made program testing nearly impossible. By the end of the 1960s multiprogrammed operating systems had become so huge and unreliable that their designers spoke openly of a software crisis (Naur 1969). As J. M. Havender (1968) recalled: P. Brinch Hansen, The invention of concurrent programming. In The Origin of Concurrent Programming: From Semaphores to Remote Procedure Calls, P. Brinch Hansen, Ed.,