Old stuff

From: Philip.Belben_at_powertech.co.uk <(Philip.Belben_at_powertech.co.uk)>
Date: Mon Nov 10 11:12:50 1997

> >> >....in my experience
> >> >with IBM network cards, if they're a round (i.e. BNC) connector,
> >> >they're probably the old "baseband" stuff that uses lots of coax
> >>cable >and a hub/amplifier, and work only with IBM PC-LAN Program
> >>and >NetBEUI....the number 2Mb/sec comes
> >> >to mind....
> >> Are we talking about Arcnet here? When I think 2Mb/sec, BNC
> >>connector, and 8-bit bus, I think Arcnet, but there may have been
> >others.... If the cards are _branded_ IBM, chances are well over
> >ten to one that they are
> >Token Ring. IBM never touched Arcnet, and was hesitant about
> >Ethernet. --
> >Ward Griffiths
>
> If any of those network cards ARE token-ring and have BNC connectors, I
> would love to buy a couple. I got an old Token ring MAU several years ago
> that has BNC ports and would like to try it out. Can't tell you how many
> people have flat out denied that Token Ring was ever carried over coax!
> But the existence of the MAU is proof enough that at one time it was done.

Wow. I must admit, I thought that token ring required too many wires
for co-ax. Or was the 4-wire connection replaced by coax in, coax out?

Seriously, if it's IBM and co-ax I'd guess at SNA (Systems Network
Architecture - the famous 3270 series terminals and related devices).
This was not a PC network architecture at all - it was a loads-of-
terminals-into-the-mainframe architecture - and the card would have come
with terminal emulator software.

BTW, did anyone discover what the IBM System/74 was? The description
sounded more like a system/34 to me, and I certainly never heard of the
74 when I worked at IBM.

Philip.
Received on Mon Nov 10 1997 - 11:12:50 GMT