Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: 20 May 91 17:27:26 GMT From: "Elliott S. Frank" Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Hayes Wins Damages on its Command Set Patent Reply-To: "Elliott S. Frank" Message-ID: Organization: Time Waits for No Man, Processors Wait for the Disk Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 381, Message 2 of 10 Lines: 24 My, how short the memory of almost everyone commenting on the validity of the Hayes patent. Not too long ago, the way that you got a modem to "dial" was that you used an ACU (Automatic Calling Unit) in conjunction with the modem. You gave the ACU the number to call, and it dialed the line on behalf of the modem. When your modem call was completed, you could drop DTR, signalling the modem to drop the line. You then redrove the ACU for your next outbound call. [There are probably hundreds of WeCO 801 ACU's still in service ...] The first modems that allowed dialling over the data line used various schemes to get the attention of the dialler. The Hayes scheme was only one of several available in the late Seventies/early Eighties. The ubiquity of the Hayes scheme is due to brilliant marketing, not to being the only viable mechanism for escaping the dialler. Elliott Frank ...!{uunet,sun}!amdahl!esf00 (408) 746-6384 or ....!esf00@amdahl.com [the above opinions are strictly mine, if anyone's.]