20 Jan
2014
20 Jan
'14
12:54 p.m.
On 1/20/14 12:06 PM, Richard wrote:
A lot of that stuff was "proprietary" but I
suspect that it was just
some variant (possibly minor enough so as not to be distinguishable on
operating equipment) of an IBM synchronous serial communication
scheme.
Univac, Burroughs and HP all had their own variants of polled block mode
terminals through synchronous comms lines. If it has a BNC coax
connector out the back, it's most likely talking 3270.
And like Will said, IBM protocols aren't going away any time soon.
That bank teller isn't filling in a form in a web browser, nor are
the people behind the desk at the DMV.
What is going away is the proprietary network hardware as the gear
to support them is retired.
On the other hand, of what interest to historians will there be for
a bunch of boxes with connectors that all pretty much look the same?
A concrete example for CHM was accepting a Kalpana Ethernet Switch.
http://webdev.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102626817
It is a really boring looking box, but it was the first device to use
switched rather than bussed Ethernet which radically changed the way
that you built out a LAN.