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  • Origin Of The Autobaud Technique

    From Lawrence D'Oliveiro@3:633/280.2 to All on Sat Nov 16 17:34:55 2024
    I can remember when our DEC VAX/VMS system was upgraded sometime in the
    early 1980s to version 4, I think it was, which introduced a clever new terminal-line feature called “autobaud”. Gone was the pain of sitting down at a terminal and watch it spew rubbish until you figured out what speed
    the last user had left it at: of course they would have had both terminal
    and line at the same speed, but if this was a VT100-class terminal, and
    they had neglected to save the terminal speed change to its nonvolatile
    RAM, then if the terminal was turned off and on again, it would revert to
    its previous setting, which would be out of sync with the line.

    Instead, the docs said you just had to press RETURN once or twice, and the terminal driver would automatically detect the right line speed and pop up
    a nice, legible login prompt. In practice, I don’t recall ever having to press RETURN more than once. It just seemed like magic. (We had fewer TV channels in those days...)

    Was DEC the first with this? Somehow I suspect not ...

    --- MBSE BBS v1.0.8.4 (Linux-x86_64)
    * Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (3:633/280.2@fidonet)
  • From Lynn Wheeler@3:633/280.2 to All on Sat Nov 16 18:52:20 2024
    Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:
    Instead, the docs said you just had to press RETURN once or twice, and the terminal driver would automatically detect the right line speed and pop up
    a nice, legible login prompt. In practice, I don’t recall ever having to press RETURN more than once. It just seemed like magic. (We had fewer TV channels in those days...)

    .... mentioned it in post to
    Any interesting PDP/TECO photos out there?

    thread a few hrs ago ... in the late 60s, did it for clone ibm 360 telecommunication controller we built using Interdata/3 machine
    (upgraded to Interdata/4 with cluster of Interdata/3s) ... that
    Interdata and then Perkin/Elmer sold.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interdata https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perkin-Elmer#Computer_Systems_Division

    initial (virtual machine) CP/67 delivered to univ had 1050&2741 terminal
    type support with automagic terminal type recognition. Univ. had ascii
    TTY (mostly 33, but some 35), so I added ascii terminal support
    integrated with automagic terminal type recognition (able to use the SAD
    CCW to switch the terminal type line scanner for each line/port). I then
    wanted a single dial-in number ("hunt group") for all terminal types
    .... but while the terminal type line scanner could be switched for each
    port, IBM had hard-wired the port line speed ... thus kicked-off the
    univ project to build our own clone controller that also did "autobaud".

    --
    virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970

    --- MBSE BBS v1.0.8.4 (Linux-x86_64)
    * Origin: Wheeler&Wheeler (3:633/280.2@fidonet)
  • From Lynn Wheeler@3:633/280.2 to All on Sat Nov 16 19:08:35 2024
    Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:
    initial (virtual machine) CP/67 delivered to univ had 1050&2741
    terminal type support with automagic terminal type
    recognition. Univ. had ascii TTY (mostly 33, but some 35), so I added
    ascii terminal support integrated with automagic terminal type
    recognition (able to use the SAD CCW to switch the terminal type line
    scanner for each line/port). I then wanted a single dial-in number
    ("hunt group") for all terminal types ... but while the terminal type
    line scanner could be switched for each port, IBM had hard-wired the
    port line speed ... thus kicked-off the univ project to build our own
    clone controller that also did "autobaud".

    trivia: turn of century had tour of datacenter that handled majority of
    dial-up POS credit card swipe terminal calls east of the mississippi ...
    the telecommunication controller was descendant of what we had done in
    the 60s ... some question that the mainframe channel interface card was
    same design we had done more than three decades earlier.

    --
    virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970

    --- MBSE BBS v1.0.8.4 (Linux-x86_64)
    * Origin: Wheeler&Wheeler (3:633/280.2@fidonet)