> No real issue, just thought I would ask. I couldn't think of anything > other than an OSA for TCP/IP communication. I had forgotten about the > CIPS from CISCO.
There are a fair number of devices that work with IBM TCPIP (both for VM and for MVS). Some other fun ones: 7170 (basically a parallel channel interface to a DEC Unibus card cage, with a DEC DELNI network card in it, controlled by an original IBM PC with (wait for it!) 64K of RAM!), Genned as a CTC. Very temperamental, but it got bits on the wire. 8232 (a channel attached PC/AT that came with a Ungermann/Bass 10mbit Ethernet card that jammed easily on networks with lots of collisions) also genned as a CTC 3172 (aka LAN Channel Station, or LCS) genned as 3088, could support up to 3 network adapters (TR, Ethernet, ATM), although you were sad if you had the ATM adapter and tried to add anything else to it). This is the most common "emulated" adapter, and was available internally on the MP3K, FlexES and now zPDT. Came in parallel and ESCON versions, I think. BusTech BTI 1, 2 and 3: very popular with universities, as they were about a quarter to half the price of a 8232 or 3172 and took up a LOT less space (4 RU vs a half-height cabinet for a 3172). V1 required a special driver, but later models emulated a 3088. Supported Ethernet, TR, and ATM in various forms, and you could get one unit to support up to 4 adapters (the vendor sold only 3, but there was plenty horsepower for 10 Mbit Ethernet. ATI Hyperchannel -- did 10 and 100mbit Ethernet direct from the channel interface. Expensive, usually used when you had a Cray to do computing and the Z system was just playing smart I/O device to the Cray. X25IPI -- IP over X.25. You needed a FEP for this thing, or the internal X.25 interface in a 4361. Evil. Pure Evil. SNA LU - IP over SNA. VTAM set up a LU-LU session, and the IP stack used it like a serial line. Weird, but it worked. Cisco CIP - channel attached 75xx Cisco router. Parallel and ESCON versions, genned as a 3088. Fast (for the day) and very flexible. Could drive dozens of interfaces, offload 3270 traffic, deal with up to SONET speeds, bridge Ethernet and TR and ATM networks. The channel interface was the real bottleneck. Too bad there never was a FICON version. Cisco CPA - channel attached 72xx Cisco router. Similar to a CIP, but designed for the smaller 7200 series routers. Also had a parallel and ESCON version. Real CTC/CNCs -- if you had a 3088, you could use it to connect to other Z hosts and do IP over the channel. Fast, for the day, but not very useful unless you were VERY visionary and fought the SNA Wars well. The lockstep nature of the channel protocol was the big bottleneck. About that point was where the OSAs appeared. The stack still has the code to support most of these devices, but IBM (and the other vendors) probably don't support them officially any more. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html