schmidg@ESDVAX.ARPA (10/26/87)
I N T E R O F F I C E M E M O R A N D U M Date: 24-Oct-1987 11:27 From: Gerry Schmid Username: SCHMIDG Dept: Tel No: (617)-256-3969 TO: _MAILER! ( _DDN[INFO-PCNET@AI.AI.MIT.EDU] ) TO: _MAILER! ( _DDN[PROTOCOLS@RUTGERS.EDU] ) TO: _MAILER! ( _DDN[CLYDE!WATMATH!UTGPU!UTZOO!HENRY@RUTGERS.EDU] ) TO: _MAILER! ( _DDN[KPETERSON@SIMTEL20.ARPA] ) Subject: COS in house protocols Subject: [TCP/IP Mail From: <@AI.AI.MIT.EDU:KPETERSEN@SIMTEL20.ARPA>] OSI Return-Path: <@AI.AI.MIT.EDU:KPETERSEN@SIMTEL20.ARPA> Received: from AI.AI.MIT.EDU by esdvax.arpa ; 1 Sep 87 08:56:12 GMT+0:42 Received: from SIMTEL20.ARPA (TCP 3200000112) by AI.AI.MIT.EDU 1 Sep 87 08:36:41 EDT Date: Monday, 31 August 1987 13:09-MDT Message-ID: <KPETERSEN.12331128566.BABYL@SIMTEL20.ARPA> Sender: clyde!watmath!utgpu!utzoo!henry@RUTGERS.EDU (Henry Spencer) From: clyde!watmath!utgpu!utzoo!henry@RUTGERS.EDU (Henry Spencer) To: protocols@RUTGERS.EDU Subject: OSI ReSent-From: KPETERSEN@SIMTEL20.ARPA ReSent-To: Info-PCNET at AI.AI.MIT.EDU ReSent-Date: Tue 1 Sep 1987 06:32-MDT > The entire globe needs yet anotehr new protocol like it needs 5 billion > new holes, one each in the heads of the earth's 5 billion people. > Interesting that you should say this in the context of an article that > basically says "run OSI". Ever heard of TCP/IP? :-) > -- > "There's a lot more to do in space | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology > than sending people to Mars." --Bova | {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,utai}!utzoo!henry This item appears on page 15 of the June 1987 issue of Data Communications. ============================================ For Own In-House Network, COS Selects TCP/IP That's right. The consortium of vendor and user heavyweights, the Corporation for Open Systems (COS), which exists solely to accelerate the development and deployment of products based on the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) specifications, confirms that its own in-house computer network will use the renegade transmission control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP) set, and not OSI transport and network protocols, at least not initially. "I realize it may look bad, but we *do* plan to migrate [to the OSI protocols]," says Steve Smith, a COS researcher. COS expects its in-house network -- consisting largely of Unix-based Sun Microsystem workstations, Unix-based file servers, and Ethernet connections supplied by Bridge Communications -- to be up and running within the next few weeks. Aware that charges are likely to fly that COS isn't practicing what it preaches when it comes to implementing OSI, COS officials declined further comment. It seems the decision to go with TCP/IP -- even though several COS members, including IBM, Retix, and Touch Communications, for example, now offer OSI network/transport-layer products -- was made reluctantly, because the vendors whose gear COS researchers wanted (Sun, Bridge) do not offer OSI connections. There could, however, be another reason for the interim acceptance of TCP/IP: COS is long overdue in setting up a test facility for checking out OSI network/transport product implementations and certifying their intercompatibility. And selecting an OSI product for use in its own network, which has not passed COS's own certification muster, might have been viewed as an even bigger political gaffe than going with TCP/IP. -!r