Appearance: NewFunctionality: UnknownDescription:============As pictured, aCorvus OmniNet PC Bus Transporter. Brand new in anti-static bag with disk anddongle. Warranty and Returns:=====================We understand thatthere may be compatibility issues, space constraints, or it just doesn’t lookperfect. This item can be returned within 14-days for ANY reason. However,shipping to and from is not refundable. Shipping:=========- Local pickup isalso available at no cost.- Most orders placedbefore 9am will ship the same day.Stock#:14032In 1980 Corvus cameout with the first commercially successful local area network (LAN), calledOmninet.[citation needed] Most Ethernet deployments of the time ran at 3 Mbit/sand cost one or two thousand dollars per computer. Ethernet also used a thick andheavy cable that felt like a lead pipe when bent,[citation needed] which wasrun in proximity to each computer, often in the ceiling plenum. The weight ofthe cable was such that injury to workers from ceiling failure and fallingcables was a real danger. A transceiver unit was spliced or tapped into thecable for each computer, with an additional AUI cable running from thetransceiver to the computer itself.Corvus's Omninet ranat one megabit per second, used twisted pair cables and had a simple add-incard for each computer. The card cost $400 and could be installed by the enduser.[citation needed] Cards and operating software were produced for both theApple II and the IBM PC and XT. At the time, many networking experts said thattwisted pair could never work because "the bits would leakoff"[citation needed], but it eventually became the de facto standard forwired LANs.Other Omninetdevices included the "Utility Server" that was an Omninet connecteddevice that allowed one Parallel printer and two Serial devices (usuallyprinters) connected to it to be shared on an Omninet network. Internally theUtility Server was a single-board Z80 computer with 64 kB of RAM, and onstartup the internal boot ROM retrieved its operating program from the FileServer. The literature/documentation and software that shipped with the UtilityServer included a memory map and I/O ports writeup. It was possible to replacethe Utility Server's operating code file with a stand-alone copy of Wordstarconfigured for the serial port, and to fetch and save its files on the fileserver. A dumb terminal connected to the first serial port then became aninexpensive diskless word processing station.[citation needed]A single Omninet waslimited to 64 devices, and the device address was set with a 5-bit DIP switch.Device zero was the first file server, device one was the Mirror or The Banktape backup, the rest were user computers, or Utility Servers. Systems withmore than one file server had them at zero and up, then the tape backup, thenthe user computers. No matter what the configuration, you could only have 64devices.,RcmdId ViewItemDescV4,RlogId p4%60bo7%60jtb9%3Feog4d71f%2B0a7%3E-14c3659b946-0x108-->
