4.2 networking: pup & other non-IP protocols

[creon at ames-nas-gw.arpa]

From:  Creon Levit <creon at ames-nas-gw.arpa>

I have installed another protocol under 4.2.  It is a subset of SCP,
which is Cray Research's "Station Call Protocol" that a Cray running
COS uses to communicate with front ends.  It is very primitive and
depends on the particular characteristics of the [NSC HYPERchannel]
hardware that it runs on.  The protocol does double duty as a "raw"
path to the HYPERchannel, somewhat like the raw 3Mbit ethernet stuff
that is included.  However, one still uses socket(2), bind(2),
sendto(2), etc. to use the prototcol.

Also, I beleive that Some people at Lawrence Livermore are putting
Their protocol (LINCS) under the socket structure.  (I tried to do the
same thing with LINCS once, but didn't know enough at the time). There is a
substantial amount of DECNET code under sockets on the latest
berkeleytapes, though it still looks incomplete.  I beleive it is being
done by DEC for Ultrix-32 (tm), though I'm not sure.  There is also the
"network disk" protocol of Sun microsystems, and some SNA software
rumored to be available, thoughI don't know from whom.

I think you can expect more and more protocols to run under 4.2bsd.  It
looks like it was designed to be a "gateway" architecture, trading in
performance for more flexibility.  For example, one process can have
several sockets, each using a different protocol, and move data between
them.

As for internet dependencies, my experience was that it was my
dependencies on the internet code that screwed me, rather than the
system's dependencies on the internet code.


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