TOPS for PC, from sun

From: Jack Peacock <peacock_at_simconv.com>
Date: Mon Aug 24 12:25:57 1998

>Well, it says that it is a full networking OS that allows mac's and
PC's
to communicate, etc. seems somewhat along the lines of what francois
has. also has a "secret proprietary etc etc" program disk called
"RTERM", circa 1985.

Daniel A. Seagraves wrote:
>
> If it is what I immediately thought it was, (Which it can't be,
> DEC owned TOPS, not Sun...) *I WANT A COPY!*
>
> (TOPS-20 on a PC! The horror!)
> -------

Seems there is some confusion here. TOPS-10 and TOPS-20 were DEC
operating systems for the 36-bit DEC-10 and DEC-20 mainframes, circa
late 60's (DEC-10) thru late 70's (DEC-20). TOPS dies when the VAX came
out, thought there are vestiges left in VMS.

The TOPS networking cards were essentially Appletalk cards for PCs. It
was a low speed network using a Z80 SIO (or SCC?) serial USART and
RS-422 drivers instead of RS-232. IIRC the speed was around
230Kbits/second (I have one in the back of a closet, haven't looked at
it for a while). No relation to the TOPS operating system at all.
         Jack Peacock
Received on Mon Aug 24 1998 - 12:25:57 BST