16 Nov
2021
16 Nov
'21
5:56 p.m.
So does ANF10 do routing?
DECnet had real routing with Phase III (1982). It had sort-of-routing in limited cases
with Phase II "intercept", but realistically that was a one-hop network, with an
extra sort-of-hop to get across the 10/20 system's front end.
Meanwhile, Typeset-11 had routing (Phase III style) in 1978, that was an entirely
unrelated design not using any DECnet bits at all.
paul
On Nov 16, 2021, at 11:45 AM, Johnny Billquist <bqt
at softjar.se> wrote:
Peter probably remembers this much better than I do. But back in the 80s, I was using
ANF10 in Stockholm, and it was a network with more than 10 nodes. But I understood it as
not everyone had a direct connection to everyone. But maybe I misunderstood something?
Otherwise I would try to figure out how that was working. There were definitely KS
machines on there, along with some KLs, and I think one KI. :-)
Johnny
On 2021-11-16 17:34, Robert Armstrong wrote:
Supratim and I (with some help and
encouragement from Peter) have set up an ANF10 network between the TOPS10 nodes VENTI and
TWONKY. If you haven?t heard of it, ANF10 (short for ?A Networking Feature? ? yes,
really!) predates DECnet (I?m pretty sure, although I?m sure there will be debate about
that) and provides mostly the same functions ? remote terminals, file transfer, etc.
ANF10 also has remote RJEs with card readers, line printers and terminal concentrators.
.net/anf
[ANF10 network: connected to VENTI(20), located at VENTI(20), 2 nodes]
Node VENTI (20) SIMH KS10 VENTI 7.04 NET 14-Nov-21
Node TWONKY (37) SIMH KS10 TWONKY 7.04NET 15-Nov-21
It?s possible to run ANF10 and DECnet both, and that?s what we?re doing so TWONKY and
VENTI are also available on HECnet. If anybody else has a TOPS10 system and would like to
connect it would be nice to add a few more nodes, but there is a problem. TOPS10 supports
a maximum of two KDP/DUP lines on the KS10, and you need one for DECnet and the other for
ANF10. That means each system can talk to at most one other ANF10 system, which limits
the network size to two nodes. Bummer?
There are a few options available ?
?DEC made some DNxx PDP-11 boxes that supported multiple ANF10 connections. We could set
up one of these as a router.
?Somebody could hack TOPS10 to allow more than two DUP lines.
?Somebody could write a pyDECnet type gizmo that speaks ANF10.
And there might be others that I haven?t thought of yet. Any ideas?
Bob
--
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