PROTOCOL STACKS
ARCNET
ARCNET (also CamelCased as ARCnet, an acronym from Attached Resource Computer NETwork) is a local area network (LAN) protocol, similar in purpose to Ethernet or Token Ring. ARCNET was the first widely available networking system for microcomputers and became popular in the 1980s for office automation tasks. It has since gained a following in the embedded systems market, where certain features of the protocol are especially useful.
ARCNET remained proprietary until the early-to-mid 1980s. This did not cause concern at the time, as most network architectures were proprietary. The move to non-proprietary, open systems began as a response to the dominance of International Business Machines (IBM) and its Systems Network Architecture (SNA). In 1979, the Open Systems Interconnection Reference Model (OSI Model) was published. Then, in 1980, Digital, Intel and Xerox (the DIX consortium) published an open standard for Ethernet that was soon adopted as the basis of standardization by the IEEE and the ISO. IBM responded by proposing Token Ring as an alternative to Ethernet but kept such tight control over standardization that competitors were wary of using it. ARCNET was less expensive than either, often much less, more reliable, more flexible, and by the late 1980s it had a market share about equal to that of Ethernet.
After Ethernet abandoned their original clumsy thick-wire and somewhat-less-clumsy thin-coax version and adopted ARCnet's innovative and more maintainable "interconnected stars" cabling topology based on active hubs, Ethernet became more attractive than before, thus Ethernet volumes increased. With more companies entering the market, the price of Ethernet started to fall, and ARCNET volumes tapered off. The same was largely true of Token Ring, although IBM's immense power managed to keep it in the market for some time longer.
ARCNET
ARCNET (also CamelCased as ARCnet, an acronym from Attached Resource Computer NETwork) is a local area network (LAN) protocol, similar in purpose to Ethernet or Token Ring. ARCNET was the first widely available networking system for microcomputers and became popular in the 1980s for office automation tasks. It has since gained a following in the embedded systems market, where certain features of the protocol are especially useful.
ARCNET remained proprietary until the early-to-mid 1980s. This did not cause concern at the time, as most network architectures were proprietary. The move to non-proprietary, open systems began as a response to the dominance of International Business Machines (IBM) and its Systems Network Architecture (SNA). In 1979, the Open Systems Interconnection Reference Model (OSI Model) was published. Then, in 1980, Digital, Intel and Xerox (the DIX consortium) published an open standard for Ethernet that was soon adopted as the basis of standardization by the IEEE and the ISO. IBM responded by proposing Token Ring as an alternative to Ethernet but kept such tight control over standardization that competitors were wary of using it. ARCNET was less expensive than either, often much less, more reliable, more flexible, and by the late 1980s it had a market share about equal to that of Ethernet.
After Ethernet abandoned their original clumsy thick-wire and somewhat-less-clumsy thin-coax version and adopted ARCnet's innovative and more maintainable "interconnected stars" cabling topology based on active hubs, Ethernet became more attractive than before, thus Ethernet volumes increased. With more companies entering the market, the price of Ethernet started to fall, and ARCNET volumes tapered off. The same was largely true of Token Ring, although IBM's immense power managed to keep it in the market for some time longer.
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