[Simh] terminal multiplexers

[Rich Alderson]

> From: Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org>
> Date: Thu, 12 Nov 2015 08:52:27 -0800

> On 11/12/15 5:25 AM, Patrick Finnegan wrote:

>> DEC's DECserver, Xyplex Maxserver, Annex terminal servers, and Xylogics
>> (for the ones I have touched and remember) all converted telnet into real
>> RS/EIA-232 lines.

> And Ungerman-Bass and Bridge Communications CS/200 before that. I think
> Bridge was the first TCP/IP serial bridge. UB was XNS and Net/One was one
> of the first 3rd party Ethernet products.

Does the Bridge box predate the Stanford terminal servers based on the SUN-1
processor board, like the Stanford routers?  These were the predecessor of
the offerings from 'cisco Systems (the original spelling).

Hmm.  Come to think of it, the purpose of these was to convert serial lines
to telnet.  My first encounter with "milking machine mode" (telnet to serial
lines) was a Cisco ASM connected to an IBM 4994 (headless Series/1) to allow
telnet into the IBM 4381s at LOTS, which was around 1989 and hardly early.
I don't know whether earlier Cisco terminal servers or Stanford EtherTIPs
(as they were called) had that capability in the standard software load.

Hmm.  A brief look at the Pelkey book says that it doesn't appear to address
academic developments like the Stanford University Network, miles of 3Mbit
Ethernet cable run through the steam tunnels c. 1980.

                                                                Rich