IBM PC Network

Short description: IBM PC's first LAN system

The IBM PC Network was IBM PC's first LAN system.[1][2] It consisted of network cards, cables, and a small device driver known as NetBIOS (Network Basic Input/Output System). It used a data rate of 2 Mbit/s and carrier-sense multiple access with collision detection.

NetBIOS was developed by Sytek Inc as an API for software communication over this IBM PC Network LAN technology; with Sytek networking protocols being used for communication over the wire. IBM's later Token Ring network emulated the NetBIOS application programming interface, and it lived on in many later systems.

## Contents

* 1 Broadband
* 2 Baseband
* 3 See also
* 4 References

## Broadband

The original broadband version in 1984 communicated over 75 Ω cable television compatible co-axial cable with each card connecting via a single F connector.[3] Separate transmit and receive frequencies were used. Cards could be ordered that used different frequencies so multiple cards could transmit simultaneously, at 2 Mbit/s each.[4] A Sytek head-end device was required to translate from each card's transmit frequency to the destination card's receive frequency. Frequency-division multiplexing allowed the cable to be shared with other voice, video, and data traffic.

## Baseband

Later, in 1987 a much cheaper "baseband" version, also running at 2 Mbit/s connected computers in daisy-chain style using twisted-pair cables with 6P2C modular telephone connectors (often mistermed "RJ11").[5] Interface cards had two 6P2C sockets for connecting to left and right neighbor nodes. The unused sockets at the ends of the network segment had to be fitted with a terminator on one end of the chain and a wrap plug on the other. A hybrid star topology was possible using a hub.[6]

## See also

* LAN Manager

## References

1. ↑ IBM. PC Network Announcement Letter. 1984-08-14 ([1]).
2. ↑ IBM. PC Network Program Announcement Letter. 1985-04-02 ([2]).
3. ↑ "IBM PC Network Interconnects IBM Personal Computers". 14 August 1984. https://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/printableversion.wss?docURL=/common/ssi/rep_ca/0/897/ENUS184-100/index.html&request_locale=en.
4. ↑ IBM PC Network Adapter II/A-Frequency 2 And IBM PC Network Adapter II/A-Frequency 3
5. ↑ "Resolution Problems, Network World 22 Jun 1987
6. ↑ "PC Network". http://ohlandl.ipv7.net/NIC/PC_Network.html.

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