wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) (07/26/85)
I just received an ad from a company called "Communication Research Group" (8939 Jefferson Highway, Baton Rouge, LA 70809, (504) 923-0888 or 1-800-24-BLAST) for a "family of communications software products linking over 130 of the most popular computers with a universal transfer utility which can move any binary or text files 100% error-free", called "BLAST" (BLocked ASynchronous Transmission). The literature mentions UNIX as a supported OS, both on mainframes and on micros. Anybody know anything about this? I never heard of it before, but, then, I'm often out-of-it... Is it actually one of the PD products we already know of, like Kermit, but under a different name? (That is just a wild guess so please don't flame if it is a ludicrous question.) Anyway, I'm curious, and wondered if someone out there knew more... Regards, Will Martin UUCP/USENET: seismo!brl-bmd!wmartin or ARPA/MILNET: wmartin@almsa-1.ARPA
slerner@sesame.UUCP (Simcha-Yitzchak Lerner) (07/30/85)
> > Anybody know anything about this? I never heard of it before, but, then, I'm > often out-of-it... Is it actually one of the PD products we already know of, > like Kermit, but under a different name? (That is just a wild guess so please > don't flame if it is a ludicrous question.) BLAST is not an old product with a new name. It is a protocol similar to XMODEM and KERMIT with one major exception. Block ACK/NAK is done in an asynchronous full-duplex fashion. By not waiting for ACK/NAK at the end of each packet, but continueing with data comm while waiting for the ACK can greatly increase throughput in situations where turn-around time is high (such as long distance via satalite and networks that wait for silence for a second or two before they xmit your data.) -- Opinions expressed are public domain, and do not belong to Lotus Development Corp. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Simcha-Yitzchak Lerner {genrad|ihnp4|ima}!wjh12!talcott!sesame!slerner {cbosgd|harvard}!talcott!sesame!slerner slerner%sesame@harvard.ARPA
tp@ndm20 (08/01/85)
For those of you who don't read INFO-KERMIT/fa.info-kermit, such an extention
(sliding window protocol) has just been proposed for Kermit.
Terry Poot
Nathan D. Maier Consulting Engineers
(214)739-4741
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