Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!emory!gatech!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!cwlim!trier
From: trier@cwlim.INS.CWRU.Edu (Stephen C. Trier)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.ibmpc
Subject: Re: Recent Dev. of PC/IP
Message-ID: <1991Feb23.170339.2144@usenet.ins.cwru.edu>
Date: 23 Feb 91 17:03:39 GMT
References: <302@johnson.jvnc.net>
Sender: news@usenet.ins.cwru.edu
Reply-To: trier@po.CWRU.Edu
Organization: Case Western Reserve Univ. Cleveland, Ohio, (USA)
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In article <302@johnson.jvnc.net> steve@johnson.jvnc.net ("Steven L. Johnson") writes:
>Could someone provide or point me to a summary of history and the
>current versions of the various PC/IP developments.

Here's my guess at the history, based on what I've seen on the net and in
PC/IP documentation and source.

--------------------------------
PUBLICLY AVAILABLE VERSIONS:

First there was MIT PC/IP, written in the early 1980's.  At the time, no
C compilers existed for PC's, so it was cross-compiled from a VAX.  MIT
PC/IP had the noted limitation of supporting only one TCP connection at
a time, which meant that its telnet could support only one connection.
An FTP implementation was impossible.

After that, CMU started doing some PC/IP development.  I think they were
the ones who provided support for multiple TCP connections.  I don't know
much about what else CMU added, but I think they also added lpr support.

PC/IP development then branched into a number of parallel versions.
Stanford picked it up and built SU-PC/IP, which used a TSR for its TCP/IP
kernel.  Stanford also added mailer support (PC/MH) and TN3270 support.
Stanford's version of PC/IP is not freely available, but can be licensed
by educational institutions.

Harvard took CMU-PC/IP and a collection of add-ons that had been written
elsewhere and pulled it all together (with code of their own) to make
Harvard-PC/IP.  This is probably the most capable freely-available PC/IP.
(Harvard also added packet driver support.)

The University of Maryland rewrote CMU-PC/IP to make MD-DOS/IP, which features
a multiple-TSR protocol stack, NFS support, mail support, and lots of other
nifty things.  It is not freely available, but can be licensed by educational
institutions.


IN-HOUSE VERSIONS AND OTHER CURIOSITIES:

Case Western Reserve licensed Stanford's PC/IP and added packet driver
support, an elm-like mailer, an improved telnet, and many bugfixes.  This
is a strictly in-house version which is not being distributed off-campus.

According to stories I've heard, some of the people from MIT who originally
wrote PC/IP went on to found FTP Software, Inc. and to write PC/TCP.  (I'm
sure I'll be corrected on this one if I'm wrong!  :-)


HOLES IN THE DESCRIPTION:

Who first added TFTP to PC/IP, and who took it out?  I still see references
to it in the CWRU-PC/IP code I maintain.

What other in-house versions exist?



There you go.  I make no claims that it's accurate or correct, since I
probably made a number of errors.  If any readers of this would like to
correct my errors or omissions, I'll be happy to update the description.

I think that the "updated CMU/MIT PC/IP" you are looking for is probably
Harvard PC/IP, since I have seen it billed as such.  Stan's Own NFS Server
(SOS) is included in Harvard PC/IP, but it's an NFS server only.  For NFS
client support, you'll need to look into MD-DOS/IP or something commercial.

(Of course, the XDR and RPC parts of SOS might be quite interesting.)

-- 
Stephen Trier                              Case Western Reserve University
Work: trier@cwlim.ins.cwru.edu             Information Network Services
Home: sct@seldon.clv.oh.us               %% Any opinions above are my own. %%


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