[HECnet] DECnet-RT?

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2020-03-27 16:47, Robert Armstrong wrote:
>> Paul Koning <paulkoning at comcast.net> wrote:
>> As a Phase III node it would be DDCMP only ...
>> I don't remember if it supports any synchronous interfaces ...
> 
>    There are no device drivers included with RT11 for anything that I
> recognize as a synchronous interface, so I would assume it only supported a
> standard asynchronous serial port.

That don't necessarily mean much. With RSX, DECnet has its own device 
drivers.

>    But that's another curious thing - there ARE drivers included with RT11
> for the DEUNA, DEQNA and the Pro series Ethernet NI.  What was the point of
> those?  Did DEC think people would write their own networking software?

Yes, I believe so. That is also the case for the Unibus ethernet in RSX, 
for which there is also a device driver provided in RSX itself. (If you 
use DECnet, it does not use that device driver.)

Megan Gentry wrote a file transfer program under RT-11 which 
communicates over ethernet. Should not be too hard to find, and is an 
example of a normal user level program using these device drivers.

   Johnny

-- 
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