11 Oct
2022
11 Oct
'22
3:57 p.m.
Michael Casadevall wrote:
I'm not sure. I have the impression the Pluribus computer isn't well
documented.
It might not be too hard to write an IMP replacement from scratch.
From what I got the impression From the docs, very
early ARPA, you had
systems directly on the network, but most users had to dial into a
specific terminal machine, which, based on the comments on the RFCs,
was less than ideal
Sounds like a TIP, "Terminal IMP". It was an IMP with double the amount
of memory. In the upper half there was software to talk to a modem pool
for dial-in access to the network. "Less than ideal", sure. Modem
speeds were often 10-30 characters per second. Much more fun to sit at
a video terminal next to the host.
VHD I guess was more to get more hosts online?
In some cases there was an IMP which hooked up to some local hosts, but
they also wanted to connect a computer that not in the same building but
in the area. That's when a VDH type interface was used.
The BBN with TCP stack is a bit mislabeled: it still
appears to
support NCP, but none of the client apps are there, but its directly
built off the NOSC stack.
That's very good. I hope the NCP support there is in good shape.
it's probably a fork from earlier in development.
79-80 timespawn
would have been *very* early in TCP's life
TCP had been underway since 1973. Experiments called "TCP bakeoffs"
started around 1979.
Pluribus IMP
emulator, anyone?
I do actually wonder how hard that would be.