Chaosnet
From Computer History Wiki
Chaosnet was the name for both an internetworking protocol family, and an early LAN technology, both invented at the MIT AI Laboratory; the latter was the LAN on which the protocol first ran.
The LAN was a CSMA-CD system modeled on the Xerox PARC 3 megabit/second Ethernet, running over cable TV cable. The protocol was later made to run over standard 10 megabit/second Ethernet, which largely supplanted the Chaosnet hardware. (On Ethernet, the Address Resolution Protocol is required to provide mappings from 16-bit Chaos addresses to the 48-bit addresses used by Ethernet.)
The protocol provided a reliable byte stream service, but also had a datagram mode.
History
Chaosnet was initially called CAIOSnet.
Implementations
- LISP machines
- ITS
- TOPS-20
- FOONEX
- VAX/VMS
- BSD Unix
- MINITS
- PDP-11 Unix V7
- Unix V8
- MagicSix
- Chaosnet Bridge
- Oswalds's Python and Lisp implementations.
- Linux.
Hardware, and simulations
- KLH10 simulates a CH11
- SIMH's KS10, PDP-11, and VAX simulate a CH11
- SIMH's KA10 and KL10 simulates a CH10
External links
- AI memo 628 - Includes chapters on ITS, TOPS-20, Lisp Machine, and Unix implementations.
- SYSDOC;CHAORD > - Initial design
- MOON;AMBER > - Another Moon document
- Chaosnet - Detailed descriptions of both the hardware system, and the protociol(s)
- CHAOS; - hardware interface designs, etc.
- CHAOS;CHAOS PLANS - interesting details of the physical installation at MIT