CHAOSnet
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CHAOSnet, developed at MIT by the MIT AI Lab in the late 1970s, refers to two separate, but closely related, technologies. The more widespread was a set of computer communication protocols; the second was one of the earliest local area network hardware implementations.
The CHAOSnet protocol originally used the latter, an implementation over CATV coaxial cable modelled on the Xerox PARC 3 megabit/second Ethernet. It was a contention-based system that included a pseudo-slotted feature intended to reduce collisions; collisions were never a real problem, and the pseudo-slotting fell into disuse.
The protocols were also later implemented as a payload that could be carried over Ethernet (usually the later 10 megabit/second variety). CHAOSnet was specifically for LANs; features to support WANs were left out for the sake of simplicity.
CHAOSnet can be regarded as a contemporary of both the PUP protocols invented by PARC, and the Internet Protocol, and was recognized as one of the other network types (other than "IN") in the Domain Name System (and by early versions of the BIND).
The original GNU manifesto stated the aim of supporting CHAOSnet.
Symbolics, a maker of the Lisp Machine, licensed the MIT CHAOSnet hardware and software implementation from the CADR computer design.
Further reading
- David A. Moon. Chaosnet. A.I. Memo 628, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, June 1981.
External links
- Cisco's Implementation of CHAOSnet (http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/software/ssr83/rpc_r/48381.htm)
- ChaosNet implementations (http://www.uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/net/0104.3/0050.html) - contains errors
- AIM-628 (http://kogs-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~moeller/symbolics-info/literature/AIM-628.ps.gz) (in ps.gz format, not checked)
- Another reference to AI Memo 628 (http://gopher.quux.org:70/Archives/usenet-a-news/FA.works/81.07.13_ucbvax.2264_fa.works.txt)
- A better scan of AI Memo 628 than the one below (http://bitsavers.org/pdf/mit/AIM-628_chaosnet.pdf)
- Another place to get AI Memos 500 to 999 (ftp://publications.ai.mit.edu/ai-publications/500-999)