[HECnet] Speaking of old decnet releases

[Steve Davidson]

From what I remember it was phase iii.  I used to support IAS-11 between 1980-1983 at the Corporate Operations Group, Maynard, MA

-Steve

Sent from my iPad

> On Sep 19, 2018, at 13:00, Jeffrey H. Johnson <jhj at trnsz.com> wrote:
> 
> John, 
> 
> Fascinating history.
> 
> I've been trying to track down DECnet/IAS - all I've been able to find so far is the SPD. (http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/spd/10.71.03_7802_DECnet-IAS.pdf)
> 
> Was Phase III or IV software available for IAS?
> 
> --
> Jeffrey H. Johnson
> jhj at trnsz.com
> https://ban.ai/multics
> 
>> On Sep 19, 2018, at 9:42 AM, John Forecast <john at forecast.name> wrote:
>> 
>> I worked on DECnet Phase II (11-D and IAS) starting in February 1977. As I recall, the protocol specs were complete by then, so design had probably started sometime in 1976. The original goal was to complete the project in 9 months but it ended up taking 18+ months. 
>> 
>> I used Phase I on a pair of 11/40’s running RSX-11D around the middle of 1976. The CHM has a transcript of an interview from 1988 with Stu Wecker who did the original DECnet architecture where he claims that Phase I development was done for 11-M, 11-D, PDP-8 and PDP-10 (Tops-10) - not sure if they were all released.
>> 
>>  John.
>> 
>>> On Sep 18, 2018, at 6:44 PM, Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> wrote:
>>> 
>>> A couple of more comments:
>>> 
>>> The manual I have for DECNET-8 is dated February 1977.
>>> The timeline for DECnet on Wikipedia claims that phase II was introduced in 1975.
>>> According that same article, it would appear that only RSX ever had DECnet phase I.
>>> 
>>> But information on Wikipedia should as usual be taken with a grain of salt. Especially when it a bit more obscure information, for which there are few sources, and the information might be written by someone without direct experience.
>>> 
>>> A couple of quotes from the code, that might help:
>>> 
>>> From NSP.PA:
>>> /NETWORK SERVICES PROTOCOL FOR DECNET/8
>>> / IMPLEMENTED AT SPEC LEVEL 2.2
>>> /
>>> /J. ROTH        23-NOV-75
>>> /JR             17-DEC-76       ADDED VERSION 2.2 CHANGES
>>> /
>>> /  WARNING:
>>> /
>>> /  THERE EXISTS A BUG IN THE NETWORK DESIGN, SUCH THAT DROPPAGE
>>> /  OF LEADING 0 BITS IN THE FIRST FRAME OF THE NSP DATA MESSAGE
>>> /  IS NOT DETECTED BY CRC. TO CIRCUMVENT THIS BUG, THIS NSP CODE
>>> /  ALWAYS SETS THE NSP 'BLOCKING' BIT WHEN SENDING, AND IGNORES IT
>>> /  WHEN RECEIVING.
>>> /
>>> /
>>> / DECNET/8 RELEASE VERSION 1
>>> / DECNET/8 PATCH LEVEL A
>>> / APRIL 8,1977
>>> /
>>>       VERSION=01
>>>       PATCH="C
>>> /JR01   16-MAY-77       FIX CONNECT REJECT BY DISCONNECT BUG
>>> /  NSP02        SCR 9/77        FIX INTERRUPT PACKET BUG        [02]
>>> /
>>> 
>>> 
>>> So, despite the comments, it's version 1C, and not 1A. And the last fix was in September 1977.
>>> And "SPEC LEVEL 2.2" might be useful in figuring out what phase it might be, and it might be a hint for phase 2.
>>> 
>>> Johnny
>>> 
>>>> On 2018-09-19 00:30, Johnny Billquist wrote:
>>>> Hmm. Thinking some more, I remember that we had a discussion about this about 2 years ago.
>>>> At that time, I tried to figure it out, and found DECnet-8 to look like it was somewhere between phase I and phase II, so I guess my previous comment was too hasty, and it don't seem to be a proper phase II implementation.
>>>> But, like I mentioned the previous time, I can go and dig more into the code, if someone is interested.
>>>>  Johnny
>>>>> On 2018-09-18 22:56, Paul Koning wrote:
>>>>> Phase 2, or phase 1?  I have seen (and read, cursorily) a manual for a PDP-8 based DECnet phase 1.  It made it quite clear that there is no plausible way to be compatible with that, it's quite a different protocol than Phase 2 and later.
>>>>> 
>>>>>    paul
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>>> On Sep 18, 2018, at 4:50 PM, Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> wrote:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> There is a phase ii release for rts-8. How easy it would be to get it up and running might be a different story, but the sources are on the internet.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Johnny
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Paul Koning <paulkoning at comcast.net> skrev: (18 september 2018 19:30:56 CEST)
>>>>>> Does anyone have the Phase II DECnet that goes with RSTS V7.0?  I think it calls itself DECnet/E V1.1, rather confusingly.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> For that matter, are there any Phase II DECnet releases around?  I know of the TOPS-20 one; any others?  Ditto for Phase III.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>    paul
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> -- 
>>>>>> Skickat från min Android-enhet med K-9 Mail. Ursäkta min fåordighet.
>>>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> -- 
>>> Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
>>>                                 ||  on a psychedelic trip
>>> email: bqt at softjar.se             ||  Reading murder books
>>> pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
>> 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sonic.net/pipermail/hecnet-list/attachments/20180919/082538f8/attachment-0001.html>