this is so cool and nostalgic!
Xerox Alto's 3 Mb/s Ethernet: Building a Gateway with a BeagleBone
41–44 of 44 posts
Re: Xerox Alto's 3 Mb/s Ethernet: Building a Gateway with a BeagleBone
#42BYTE magazine, April 1980, page 115. NEW HIGH-SPEED COMMUNICATIONS BUS: Xerox Corporation recently made a public announcement of a new concept of processor-to-processor communications intended for an office environment. This novel concept is called "Ethernet", and is a result of some of the work being done in their research labs. In this concept, a single coaxial cable is used as a high-speed communications bus betwe…
I've never considered networking as "processor-to-processor communications" before. Kind of an interesting angle.
The usage likely originates from the use of the word "processor" to mean a whole machine that does some kind of "processing", kinda like the IMP's (Interface Message Processor) on the early ARPANET. These days "processor" usually means a more narrow definition, i.e. just the CPU, rather than a whole machine.
Re: Xerox Alto's 3 Mb/s Ethernet: Building a Gateway with a BeagleBone
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Really? Sounds like a major complication to the cable manufacturing process. Wouldn't all those holes in the shielding hose degrade cable specs? All for not having to drill a hole for the eventual connecting tap.
It is not that big a deal actually, either you drill a hole with a special tool and then align the tap with the center of the hole or, on some cable you align the tap with a special dot mark on the cable where the shield has been moved aside a couple of mm. It is a convenience at the slight cost of some loss. Far faster to connect to than drilling holes in insulation using yet another tool. It really adds up if you h…
> If there is one thing I am happy about then about then it is that we no longer have coax networks
I used to install 10BASE2 and 10BASE5 infrastructure back in the late 80's and into the late 90's. I hated having to install 10BASE5 vampire taps for fear of completely buggering up what were already creaky 10BASE5 networks where the 2.5m rule was widely flaunted by on-site staff.
I remember a job at a factory in Manchester where I had to install a bunch of kit on a 10BASE2 installation. The customer insisted on running their own cables and swore blind they knew what they were doing and had done their previous install etc. When I arrived I discovered the coax had been installed in a star config :/
Yes good riddance to coax bus networks.
Re: Xerox Alto's 3 Mb/s Ethernet: Building a Gateway with a BeagleBone
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've never considered networking as "processor-to-processor communications" before. Kind of an interesting angle.
The usage likely originates from the use of the word "processor" to mean a whole machine that does some kind of "processing", kinda like the IMP's (Interface Message Processor) on the early ARPANET. These days "processor" usually means a more narrow definition, i.e. just the CPU, rather than a whole machine.
Ah, but once upon a time,
Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away,
CPU meant a large metal enclosure with circuit boards, main memory, power supplies and cooling. Oh, and blinking lights. Don't forget the blinking lights like REAL computers on TV.