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From: fair@ucbarpa.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.lans,comp.protocols.misc
Subject: Re: Spec for MAP & TOP
Message-ID: <19266@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Sat, 6-Jun-87 21:04:16 EDT
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Posted: Sat Jun  6 21:04:16 1987
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I attended a talk on MAP (the Manufacturering Automation Protocol)
last fall and came away with two observations:

1. MAP is simply a packaging of the ISO protocol suite on top of an
	IEEE 802.2 (or was that 802.4?) token passing broadband LAN.

2. There are (if you use the ISO Reference Model terminology) NO
	application protocol standards within MAP. That is to say that
	you can get the bits from your computer to that robot on the
	factory floor, but there is no standard for interpretation of
	what the bits mean.

The MAP specification comes mostly from General Motors, and thus they
should be able to provide documentation for it.

Can anyone explain what TOP (the Technical Office Protocol) suite is
about, and whose idea it was?

	Erik E. Fair	ucbvax!fair	fair@ucbarpa.berkeley.edu