pjs@euclid.jpl.nasa.gov (Peter Scott) (11/28/90)
Hi. I've been asked to explore possible solutions to a problem an area I know little about, networking protocols, so please bear with me. A colleague is working with a group whose aim is to network together various lab measurement devices plugged into PCs and workstations. These devices are currently in operation at Goldstone, California (some of them are pretty big, e.g. 70m dish antenna :-)). Anyway, another person working on the problem has proposed the Hewlett Packard MMS (Manufacturing Message Specification) as a tool for accomplishing it. Features of this product, just released, include automatic data conversion between machines, i.e., if transferring floating point data between a PC and a Sun it will convert between formats, flip bytes where necessary, etc. However it is also based on OSI, and that causes my colleague a few problems, to wit, OSI is rather new, harder to obtain software for than TCP/IP, and in order to perform testing he would have to buy another two computers just to talk OSI to each other. He would prefer to use TCP/IP. Obviously a lot of custom software has to be written to make all these devices talk to hosts and servers, but it would be nice to avoid reinventing too many wheels. Okay, My Question: does anyone have any suggestions for any software product, commercial or otherwise, which would simplify the task of data communication, runs on TCP/IP, and generally provides the same benefits as we would find useful in MMS? -- This is news. This is your | Peter Scott, NASA/JPL/Caltech brain on news. Any questions? | (pjs@euclid.jpl.nasa.gov)