TheIBM PC Network wasIBM PC's firstLAN system.[1][2] It consisted ofnetwork cards,cables, and a smalldevice driver known asNetBIOS (Network Basic Input/Output System). It used a data rate of2 Mbit/s andcarrier-sense multiple access with collision detection.
NetBIOS was developed bySytek 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 laterToken Ring network emulated the NetBIOSapplication programming interface, and it lived on in many later systems.
The originalbroadband version in 1984 communicated over 75 Ωcable television compatibleco-axial cable with each card connecting via a singleF connector.[1] Separate transmit and receive frequencies were used. Cards could be ordered that used different frequencies so multiple cards could transmit simultaneously, at2 Mbit/s each.[3] 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.
Later, in 1987 a much cheaperbaseband version, also running at2 Mbit/s connected computers indaisy-chain style using twisted-pair cables with6P2C modular telephone connectors.[4] 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 aterminator on one end of the chain and a wrap plug on the other. A hybridstar topology was possible using a hub.[5]
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