[HECnet] Sunlink DNA

[Jeffrey H. Johnson]

Thanks,

I just made an inquiry to a few people at Oracle - but I don't expect that to go anywhere.

> On Sep 18, 2018, at 9:16 PM, Tim Sneddon <tim at sneddon.id.au> wrote:
> 
> The one thing I did find was a company called Ki Research.  The released a product called KiNET.  They supported a raft of UNIX versions and architectures.  I got talking to them because they also listed Linux and I made some enquiries.  Unfortunately, the Linux version was not really "available" as they did not believe that it was possible to change a NICs MAC from Linux.  Of course, if you had the right card (like a Tulip) then this was not a problem.  There were a number of emails back and forth about  releasing the source, which the person I was speaking to seemed keen to do.  However, they eventually stopped replying and the conversation went dead.

I found references to Ki Research supporting a wide range of systems in the 1992 thread at this link: 

https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!msg/comp.unix.aix/tgMn6Z45Z1A/cDRmtdnOk24J

I'd be particularly interested in the AOS/VS and Apollo software as well, but they certainly list Sun as supported. They even support OS/2. 

Seems to be the missing Holy Grail of DECnet software.  Perhaps someone might track down "Dan Watts" ... perhaps if the software is no longer sold and has no commercial value he might know who to contact to have it released - or at least to be able to 'preserve' a copy until the appropriate permissions can be obtained. 

Other names I came up with were "Toni Barckley" and "Dan Smith", mentioned in this Network World article about a change that never came to be...

https://ban.ai/~jhj/images/decnet_4_5.png

Probably you've done all this research before!

For that earlier linked thread, was interesting as well: "Our version of DECnet for Ultrix has many features not found in the Ultrix DECnet available from DEC.  One such feature is support for Level 1 and Level 2 routing [last I checked, I don't think DEC/Ultrix does this]. Our command interface is modeled after the VMS commands, which many of our users find easier to use.  For users which do however like the DEC/Ultrix interface, we also have that interface as well.  There are many other benefits as well."

> A quick Google reported that Bob Koehler is quoted as actually having used it, so I've dropped him a line.  Maybe it will turn something up.
> 
> Regards, Tim.

--
Jeffrey H. Johnson
jhj at trnsz.com
https://ban.ai/multics
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