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List:       tuhs
Subject:    Re: [TUHS] Spider (and back to quiz)
From:       Paul Ruizendaal <pnr () planet ! nl>
Date:       2020-01-24 1:59:23
Message-ID: 13430143-695E-4DBD-A443-9ECCA0FB4283 () planet ! nl
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There is more in that issue of BSTJ, and indeed it seems this was a precursor.

https://ia801905.us.archive.org/25/items/bstj51-6-1147/bstj51-6-1147_text.pdf
https://ia801603.us.archive.org/0/items/bstj51-6-1167/bstj51-6-1167_text.pdf

The first paper makes mention of repeaters starting to self oscillate, and a redesign \
being underway.

There is a possibility that a Unix PDP11 was connected to this earlier network prior \
to Spider existing, in which case the accepted quiz answer would be wrong.


> > Ugh. Memory lane has a lot of potholes. This was a really long time ago. 
> 
> Many thanks for that post - really interesting!
> 
> I had to look up "Pierce Network", and found it described in the Bell Journal:
> https://ia801903.us.archive.org/31/items/bstj51-6-1133/bstj51-6-1133_text.pdf
> 
> In my reading the Spider network is a type of Pierce network.
> 
> However, the network that you remember is indeed most likely different from Spider:
> - it was coax based, whereas the Spider line was a twisted pair
> - there was more than one, whereas Spider only ever had one (operational) loop
> 
> Condon and Weller are acknowledged in the report about Spider as having done many \
> of its hardware details. The report discusses learnings from the project and having \
> to tune repeaters is not among them (but another operational issue with its 'line \
> access modules' is discussed). 
> All in all, maybe these coax loops were pre-cursors to the Spider network, without \
> a switch on the loop ("C" nodes in the Pierce paper). It makes sense to first try \
> out the electrical and line data protocol before starting work on higher level \
> functions. 
> I have no idea what a GLANCE G is...


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