RE: Retro networking / WAN communities
Texas Instruments was the first second source to create a Token Ring chipset, the TMS380. When we pointed out to them some the IBM’ism features we’d prefer to be fixed for 802.x compatibility they claimed they couldn’t because of legal agreements with IBM. The TI chipset had other issues and was not register compatible with IBM’s implementation. Later IBM worked with National Semiconductor to release the TROPIC chipset that was used by Madge and others. Some info I found here: https://www.ardent-tool.com/NIC/TROPIC.html Dave. Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2022 20:25:25 + From: Wayne S Subject: Re: Retro networking / WAN communities There is some mention of Token Ring vs Ethernet here. IIRC, One issue that was pointed out was that IBM was the only single source for TR chips so the price of token ring could be kept artificially high. Was there ever a second or third source for token ring chips? Sent from my iPhone > On Apr 12, 2022, at 14:11, Grant Taylor via cctalk > wrote: > > ?On 4/12/22 3:03 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote: >> I'll bow to the experts and refer to the things as a "boxes with > the blank>n capabilities". > > I'm definitely not an expert. Just some random > on the Internet who has things to say. ;-) > >> That should pretty much cover the terrain. > > As some random on the Internet who has things to > say I actually value "boxes with n capabilities" as it > lets me know if I should treat the as a specific thing or > a generic class description. E.g. Hoover brand vs Eureka hoover device. ;-) > > > > -- > Grant. . . . > unix || die Sent from Mail for Windows
Re: Retro networking / WAN communities
Totally forgot about ARPANET. Sent from my iPhone > On Apr 12, 2022, at 11:47, Will Cooke via cctech > wrote: > > > >> On 04/12/2022 12:42 PM Wayne S via cctech wrote: >> >> >> Thanks for the info about IMP. >> But now i’d have to question IMP routers being around in 1970 since the >> internet wasn’t around yet. >> >> > The first response of "Interface" Message Processor is more correct. There > was a LOT of networking before what we call the "Internet" now. It derived > from the Arpanet in the 60s, which is where the IMPs were used. > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARPANET#:~:text=The%20Advanced%20Research%20Projects%20Agency,technical%20foundation%20of%20the%20Internet. > Will
Re: Retro networking / WAN communities
> On 04/12/2022 12:42 PM Wayne S via cctech wrote: > > > Thanks for the info about IMP. > But now i’d have to question IMP routers being around in 1970 since the > internet wasn’t around yet. > > The first response of "Interface" Message Processor is more correct. There was a LOT of networking before what we call the "Internet" now. It derived from the Arpanet in the 60s, which is where the IMPs were used. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARPANET#:~:text=The%20Advanced%20Research%20Projects%20Agency,technical%20foundation%20of%20the%20Internet. Will
Re: Retro networking / WAN communities
> I'm running into issues with switches not supporting 10 / 100 Mbps management > interfaces for other equipment. Half duplex was apparently deprecated a few years back, and recent switches from Cisco (and probably other vendors) no longer support half duplex. We ran into this at work for long lifetime medical devices.
Re: Retro networking / WAN communities
On 11/04/2022 18:02, Grant Taylor via cctech wrote: > Does anyone know of any communities / mailing lists / newsgroups / et > al. for retro networking / WAN technologies? > > I find myself interested in (at least) the following and would like to > find others with similar (dis)interests to chat about things. > >- 10Base5 / 10Base2 / 10BaseT >- ISDN >- DSL / ADSL / SDSL / HDSL >- T1 / E1 >- ATM >- Frame Relay >- ARCnet >- PSTN / PBX / PABX The Osmocom community have a retro networking project, with projects including TDM over IP. https://osmocom.org/projects/retronetworking/wiki/ They have also created an open hardware USB E1 interface that can be used with the aforementioned, as well as with older GSM base stations which implement Abis over E1 (which you can then operate with the Osmocom CNI software stack). https://osmocom.org/projects/e1-t1-adapter/wiki/IcE1usb There's also Osmocom-Analog, if your interests extend to retro cellular. http://osmocom-analog.eversberg.eu/ Andrew
