ANTS terminal system

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The ARPA Network Terminal System (usually referred to as ANTS) was a minicomputer system (it ran on PDP-11s) which was a host system for use on the ARPANET, effectively an enhanced TIP. It was written in the PEESPOL system programming language.

In addition to the TIP functionality (providing groups of serial lines to which could be attached terminals, both hard-wired and via dial-up modems, allowing users at the terminals access to the time-sharing hosts attached to the ARPANET), ANTS machines provided a limited amount of additional functionality, such as the ability to store files on mass storage devices attached to the ANTS machine. Magnetic tape drives, card readers and line printers could also be attached.

A simple multi-tasking operating system oversaw the operation of the system; it also provided allocation of main memory.

They used the TELNET and FTP protocols, running on top of NCP. Later, Remote Job Entry facilities were added, once the protocol(s) to support them were added to the NCP protocol family.

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