pedz@smu.UUCP (01/24/85)
We just purchased two boards from Excelan along with their tcp/ip software. The boards we bought were for multibus (to put into a SUN) and unibus (to put in to a 780). Both systems are running 4.2 and we have source for the Vax but not for the Suns. The TCP software tries to emulate many of the 4.2 socket features and is actually intended to be used on non-4.2 machines. The advantage of using the software is that the network layer is put down onto the board and taken off of the host. Looking at the software, it seems that it tries to do too much and also does it in the wrong way. For example, the socket "system call" actually opens a "adminastation" device driver and starts poking ioctls to it telling it the characteristics of the socket, and other nice things. It seems to me that this method will not work for any system besides one which has only one Excelan board in it and no other networking capability. Also, it is not obvious what routine capabilities this software gives you. The question is rather or not I have an accurate idea of how the software works. Also, if I implement a new protocal familay for 4.2, can I specify a limited set of destinations? Perry