Aihuxl.122
net.works
utzoo!decvax!harpo!ihnss!ihuxl!ignatz
Tue May  4 14:45:09 1982
Re: Cooperative Personal Computers
I understand your problem; however, there is a solution which seems reasonable.
With judicious selection of your personal computer, it is possible to offer
services through your mainframe to expand the function of the PC without unduely
loading the mainframe. I refer you to, at least, the Gamesmaster net, as well
as efforts by companies such as Datalogics in Chicago (a phototypesetter
manufacturer). The basic approach is to allow the mainframe, when so requested,
to use the micro as an intelligent terminal (granted, normally a waste of
resources; but if you know what the micro is, and how to access its resources,
you've got a terminal with floppies or whatever, ports, etc., etc.). Going
farther along your integration scheme, the approach used (at least in part)
by the above-mentioned firms is to download either the entire utility requested,
or a communication protocol handler. For instance, if the micro user requires
a sophisticated text editor, the portion handling just the modifications to
the current buffer ('page', 'segment', whatever) is downloaded initially. This
then requests buffers as required, which are sent to the terminal after modified
buffers are returned. This isn't just whistling; it's been done. Obviously,
such an approach presupposes high-speed communication and an efficient I/O
handling scheme in the mainframe. But I think you see my point.

                                       Dave Ihnat
                                       Analysts International Corp.
                                       Bell Telephone Laboratories
                                       Indian Hill, IL
                                       (312) 979-6747
                                       ihuxl!ignatz

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