RPL - Remote Program Load

for IBM Token-Ring

25F8923 28-pin RPL chip (27C256-20, I think...)
25F8922 5.25" Sample Programs v2.0 (360 KB image)
25F8921 3.5" sample Programs v2.0 (720 KB image)

83X8882 Remote Program Load Users Guide (Jun 87)
GG24-3892-0 Remote Initial Program Load for OS 2 and NetWare (Oct 92)

IBM_PCLP_13 IBM PC LAN Program 1.3 (3.5" format)
   (Michal Necasek - There was an update to 1.34)


The remote boot ROM/code is Token Ring only. It’s possible to adapt the sample program to Ethernet but it won’t run as is (the send buffer it allocates is 2K, while IBM’s 802.2 stack only supports up to ~1.5K for Ethernet).

The RPL User’s Guide is quite useful and probably the best documentation available. There were other editions of the RPL User’s Guide but I’ve not seen those. Over time the support was built into server products (PCLP 1.3, LAN Server) so it the detailed low-level documentation wasn’t as important.

I’m actually unsure how much code the DOS LAN Services shared with PCLP; there could well have been some. The biggest(?) difference was that PCLP provided a DOS-based peer to peer network while DLS was AFAIK strictly clients on the DOS side, no file sharing from DOS machines.

Though I think it’s fair to say that DLS replaced PCLP in IBM’s product portfolio as the servers shifted away from DOS.

WBST: As with many things IBM, names morph over time as Marketing input sways decisions. IBM's DOS PC LAN Program became "DOS LAN Services" (v4.0 latest?) as distributed with IBM's Warp Server v4.0 (Warp 3 based) and on the ServerGuide CDs.

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Louis F. Ohland, Peter H. Wendt, David L. Beem, William R. Walsh, Tatsuo Sunagawa, Tomáš Slavotínek, Jim Shorney, Tim N. Clarke, Kevin Bowling, and many others.

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