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       COMMENT PAGE FOR:
  HTML   Chaosnet (1981)
       
       
        ranger207 wrote 8 hours 3 min ago:
        It says it was inspired by Ethernet, and while modern Ethernet might
        have some significant differences of course, what were the differences
        between Chaosnet and the Ethernet of the time?
       
        bitwize wrote 16 hours 48 min ago:
        I only know of this because the CADR emulator supports an emulated
        version of it.
       
          amszmidt wrote 16 hours 36 min ago:
          It is also capable of doing it over the wire.
       
        larsbrinkhoff wrote 16 hours 58 min ago:
        Chaosnet in active use, mostly on emulators: [1] Lispm, PDP-10, PDP-11,
        VAX.
        
  HTML  [1]: https://chaosnet.net/
       
        karlgkk wrote 1 day ago:
        Woaw! You could use a space cadet keyboard with this!!1!
       
        peter_d_sherman wrote 1 day ago:
        "The transmission medium of Chaosnet is called the ether. Physically it
        is a coaxial cable, of the semi-rigid 1/2 inch low-loss type used for
        cable TV, with 75-ohm termination at both ends. At each network node a
        cable transceiver is attached to the cable. A 10-meter flat cable
        connects the transceiver to an interface which is attached to a
        computer’s I/O bus."
        
        [...]
        
        "The transceiver receives a differential digital signal from the
        computer interface and impresses it onto the cable as a level of about
        8 volts for a 1, or 0 volts (open circuit) for a 0, through a very fast
        VMOS power FET. When the cable is idle it is held at 0 volts by the
        terminations. This simple-minded unipolar scheme is adequate for the
        medium cable lengths and transmission speeds we are using. The
        transceiver monitors the cable by comparing it against a reference
        voltage, and returns a differential signal to the interface. In
        addition, it detects interference (another transceiver transmitting at
        the same time as this one) and informs the interface."
        
        Seems like the above would be all that's necessary for the simplest
        possible "built around first principles" local LAN, if someone wanted
        to experiment with an early Ethernet-like system...
        
        Anyway, great article!
       
          inigyou wrote 1 hour 3 min ago:
          It is. This is what they mean by an aether - a wire connecting
          several computers so that any of them can send an electrical signal
          they will all receive. Ethernet was named after this, but doesn't use
          an ether any more.
          
          In this design you need a way to make computers take turns. CSMA/CD
          is the stupidest: wait until nobody is transmitting before you
          transmit, and if two nodes start transmitting at the same moment,
          both abort.
       
        ale42 wrote 1 day ago:
        Is this the same CHAOS that can be in IP packets as protocol 0x10?
       
          trollbridge wrote 1 day ago:
          As a reminder, CHAOS protocol is valid over IPv6 as well.
       
          greyface- wrote 1 day ago:
          Yes, and in DNS messages as class 3.
       
            larsbrinkhoff wrote 18 hours 16 min ago:
            Yes, and in Ethernet frames as EtherType 0x0804.
       
            hackernudes wrote 19 hours 40 min ago:
            Get your public IP from cloudflare over chaos dns:
                dig @1.1.1.1 ch txt whoami.cloudflare +short
       
        dang wrote 1 day ago:
        Related. Others?
        
        A Short History of Chaosnet (2018) - [1] - May 2023 (5 comments)
        
        A Short History of Chaosnet - [2] - Jan 2022 (1 comment)
        
        Chaosnet Network Protocol - [3] - Sept 2019 (11 comments)
        
        Chaosnet - [4] - April 2019 (12 comments)
        
        A Short History of Chaosnet (2018) - [5] - March 2019 (6 comments)
        
        Short History of Chaosnet - [6] - Sept 2018 (5 comments)
        
        Chaosnet, a memo from July 1981 - [7] - Nov 2013 (1 comment)
        
  HTML  [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36079416
  HTML  [2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29927718
  HTML  [3]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20972236
  HTML  [4]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19623831
  HTML  [5]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19480577
  HTML  [6]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18107136
  HTML  [7]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6787665
       
        inigyou wrote 1 day ago:
        Should not be confused with Chaos VPN, a predecessor to dn42 for
        linking nstworks of the Chaos Computer Club.
       
       
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