Corvus Omninet , curious 'fact'
Came across this while poking around ebay: Corvus Concept Systems Computer Didn't know anything about to off to the wiki and: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corvus_Systems In 1980 Corvus came out with the first commercially successful local area network (LAN), called Omninet.[17] Most Ethernet deployments of the time ran at 3 Mbit/s and cost one or two thousand dollars per computer. Ethernet also used a thick and heavy cable that felt like a lead pipe when bent,[citation needed] which was run in proximity to each computer, often in the ceiling plenum. The weight of the cable was such that injury to workers from ceiling failure and falling cables was a real danger. A transceiver unit was spliced or tapped into the cable for each computer, with an additional AUI cable running from the transceiver to the computer itself. I had actually heard about the Corvus network stuff in the 80 but as a noob wasn't going to dig into it with the cost. I do like the injury claim. I don't recall ever hearing about that but I do recall the bends like a lead pipe part. I have no idea what qualifies as the first commercially successful network. -- Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry kd2zrq@linuxha.com http://www.linuxha.com/ Main site http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog Author of: Linux Smart Homes For Dummies KD2ZRQ
On 8/28/24 14:25, Neil Cherry via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
I do like the injury claim. I don't recall ever hearing about that but I do recall the bends like a lead pipe part.
I think the injury claim is BS. I've worked in plenty of thicknet installations; I've never so much as heard a rumor of that ever happening. Further, ask any ham radio operator if he/she has ever heard of RG8 cable busting through a ceiling. -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
I remember working with Corvus back in the day and yes it did use thicknet, and thicknet is indeed rather thick, I have to agree with Dave that the wiki info is bogus. Now the device itself was a tank. On Wed, Aug 28, 2024 at 3:15 PM Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
On 8/28/24 14:25, Neil Cherry via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
I do like the injury claim. I don't recall ever hearing about that but I do recall the bends like a lead pipe part.
I think the injury claim is BS. I've worked in plenty of thicknet installations; I've never so much as heard a rumor of that ever happening. Further, ask any ham radio operator if he/she has ever heard of RG8 cable busting through a ceiling.
-Dave
-- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
-- Bear bear42@gmail.com (email) bear@bear.im (xmpp, email) http://bear.im PGP Fingerprint = 9996 719F 973D B11B E111 D770 9331 E822 40B3 CD29
On 8/28/24 15:15, Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
On 8/28/24 14:25, Neil Cherry via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
I do like the injury claim. I don't recall ever hearing about that but I do recall the bends like a lead pipe part.
I think the injury claim is BS. I've worked in plenty of thicknet installations; I've never so much as heard a rumor of that ever happening. Further, ask any ham radio operator if he/she has ever heard of RG8 cable busting through a ceiling.
Thanks Dave,I thought it was BS but I did find it funny. It was heavy and unwieldy but if someone had a drop ceiling that weak ... well that's bad engineering. Add more ceiling ties up there! Although that would make for a pretty good horror movie: Attack of the 50ft 10Base5 cable, it will leave you in splinters! Wesley Snipes is back in part II: Snakes in the Ceiling ??? ;-) -- Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry kd2zrq@linuxha.com http://www.linuxha.com/ Main site http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog Author of: Linux Smart Homes For Dummies KD2ZRQ
On Wed, Aug 28, 2024 at 4:38 PM Neil Cherry via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
I think the injury claim is BS. I've worked in plenty of thicknet installations; I've never so much as heard a rumor of that ever happening. Further, ask any ham radio operator if he/she has ever heard of RG8 cable busting through a ceiling.
Yeah, in fact in terms of pure weight I feel like that was more of a problem with star topologies like 10BaseT. Because 10Base5 used vampire taps you would typically only have a single run in the ceiling. Whereas with 10BaseT you could have bundles of several dozen cables in the ceiling coming from a hub (which would eventually fan out to various offices). Devin
This is just a coincidence: https://hackaday.com/2024/08/27/decs-lan-bridge-100-the-invention-of-the-net... -- Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry kd2zrq@linuxha.com http://www.linuxha.com/ Main site http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog Author of: Linux Smart Homes For Dummies KD2ZRQ
On 8/28/24 16:38, Neil Cherry via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
I do like the injury claim. I don't recall ever hearing about that but I do recall the bends like a lead pipe part.
I think the injury claim is BS. I've worked in plenty of thicknet installations; I've never so much as heard a rumor of that ever happening. Further, ask any ham radio operator if he/she has ever heard of RG8 cable busting through a ceiling.
Thanks Dave,I thought it was BS but I did find it funny. It was heavy and unwieldy but if someone had a drop ceiling that weak ... well that's bad engineering. Add more ceiling ties up there!
Although that would make for a pretty good horror movie:
Attack of the 50ft 10Base5 cable, it will leave you in splinters!
Wesley Snipes is back in part II: Snakes in the Ceiling ???
soda -> keybard -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
participants (4)
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bear -
Dave McGuire -
Devin Heitmueller -
Neil Cherry