RFC 311

RFC 311 🎀 New Console Attachments to the UCSB Host

okay bestie, the deets first 💅 This is RFC 311 (NIC #9341) from the Network Working Group. Roland F. Bryan of the UCSB Computer Research Lab wrote it on 29 February 1972. The title block doesn't list a category, and it doesn't obsolete or update anything. 🦋

The MLC/360M ✨

okay so the UCSB 360-75 has an interface unit that lets you plug in any type of I/O device to the Multiplexor Channel 😭 and the device can be run by program control as if it were a standard IBM Control Unit. slay. The interface is called the Multi-Line Controller/360M (MLC/360M). It runs on the Multiplexor Channel and gives you 32 independently addressed I/O connections, grouped into 16 pairs for full-duplex I/O 🔥

Each input group has a 16-bit input buffer plus its own synchronizing and control logic, so it works as a stand-alone control unit on the 360 channel. Output groups are similar, with a 32-bit buffer plus logic 🧚 You connect everything through a data-set type connector, and the I/O signal levels follow the EIA standards (RS-232 Spec.). literally so clean 💖

Both the I/O group hardware and the supporting software for the MLC/360M are easy to modify, so you can make whatever variations you need to attach and run non-standard devices. main character energy 👑

Our main support was for 201B data-sets at 2400 baud, so we first set up the 16 I/O group pairs for that modem in our time-shared user environment 🌸 Since then the I/O groups have been changed in lots of ways to cover a wide range of uses, from 300 baud acoustic coupled use all the way up to 9600 baud for multi-station classroom operation. it's giving versatile 🌈

New Consoles ✨

ok so besides our standard attachments (mostly Culler-Fried graphic display consoles, plus educational classrooms that use those consoles) 🍓 we now have a Tektronix 4002A and an NIH General Purpose Graphics Terminal (GPGT) 🫶

The Tektronix terminal can now run on the ARPANET, and it gives our users upper and lower case ASCII, which makes it way easier to work with other sites 💜 A report on this console's capabilities is coming soon ⭐

The GPGT was developed by the University of IOWA for Bio-Medical applications. It's a delay-line refreshed video display with graphic capability, and it's the only dynamic type display in use on our host computer right now 😭 We're evaluating how it performs in our On-Line System environment. Since a user at this terminal can also reach into the network, we'll have more comments on how it operates for anyone interested 🙈

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    [ direction of Alex McKenzie.                   12/96   ]