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The 3Com 3Server was a headless dedicated network-attached storage machine designed to run 3Com local area network (LAN) server software, 3+Share.
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The 3Com 3Server was a headless dedicated network-attached storage machine designed to run 3Com local area network (LAN) server software, 3+Share.
The companion product was the diskless 3Station network workstation, a dedicated client machine. However, 3Servers could also network with standard PC-compatibles and were commonly used in this role. Having no display other than a small one-line LCD and no keyboard or mouse interface, 3Servers were controlled via another PC on the network which allowed console access to the internal server software.
The original 3Server was a x86 computer that wasn't compatible with any ordinary PC based on an Intel 80186 CPU, running a special version of MS-DOS and 3Com's proprietary 3+Share network server software. This was a multitasking network server stack that ran on top of single-tasking DOS. Internally, it had a network stack, file and print server modules, disk caching, user handling and more, all running simultaneously inside the DOS memory space. Because they were not limited by the PC memory map, 3Servers could support 1 megabyte of flat memory, breaking the PC's 640 kB barrier. This was a large amount of RAM for the time.
The original 3Server shipped in 1985 with 512 kB of RAM and a single 36 MB hard disk. It had slots for adding six additional drives, making it one of the first network attached storage (NAS) arrays. It supported both Ethernet (then branded EtherSeries) and AppleTalk and was quick to add IBM Token Ring as well. The 3Server/70, [1] introduced in July 1985, [2] doubled the storage space to 70 MB. The 3Server/500 was a 80386-based version [3] introduced in the late 1980s, with the 80486-based 3Server/600 introduced in 1991. [4]
The last models, the 3Server386 family, ran OS/2 1.3 as the basic operating system, using 3+Open, a variant of OS/2 LAN Manager. 3Com's version was an enhancement of the basic LAN Manager package, also sold by Microsoft and IBM and on other operating systems - for example, running on VAX/VMS it was the basis of DEC Pathworks.
In February, 1991, 3Com announced that it would hand over all rights to LAN Manager, 3+Open, its Macintosh and NetWare integration, and related software to Microsoft. The company soon exited the network server business as well.
The Intel 80286 is a 16-bit microprocessor that was introduced on February 1, 1982. It was the first 8086-based CPU with separate, non-multiplexed address and data buses and also the first with memory management and wide protection abilities. The 80286 used approximately 134,000 transistors in its original nMOS (HMOS) incarnation and, just like the contemporary 80186, it could correctly execute most software written for the earlier Intel 8086 and 8088 processors.
The 3Station was a diskless workstation, developed by Bob Metcalfe at 3Com and first available in 1986. The 3Station/2E had a 10 MHz 80286 processor, 1 megabyte of RAM, VGA-compatible graphics with 256 kB of video RAM, and integrated AUI/10BASE2 (BNC) network transceivers for LAN access. The product used a single printed-circuit board with four custom ASICs. It had neither a floppy disk drive nor a hard disk nor any cooling fan device, and thus it was 100% silent during operation, booting from a special "Startvolume" - (SW-Image) located at the preferred 3server-XXX Server, while also loading / storing all (HW/SW) Drivers, end-user Apps & Data files on a preferred 3Com Network Server.
IBM PC compatible computers are similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT, all from computer giant IBM, that are able to use the same software and expansion cards. Such computers were referred to as PC clones, IBM clones or IBM PC clones. The term "IBM PC compatible" is now a historical description only, since IBM no longer sells personal computers after it sold its personal computer division in 2005 to Chinese technology company Lenovo. The designation "PC", as used in much of personal computer history, has not meant "personal computer" generally, but rather an x86 computer capable of running the same software that a contemporary IBM PC could. The term was initially in contrast to the variety of home computer systems available in the early 1980s, such as the Apple II, TRS-80, and Commodore 64. Later, the term was primarily used in contrast to Apple's Macintosh computers.
IBM PC DOS, an acronym for IBM Personal Computer Disk Operating System, is a discontinued disk operating system for the IBM Personal Computer, its successors, and IBM PC compatibles. It was manufactured and sold by IBM from the early 1980s into the 2000s. Developed by Microsoft, it was also sold by that company as MS-DOS. Both operating systems were identical or almost identical until 1993, when IBM began selling PC DOS 6.1 with new features. The collective shorthand for PC DOS and MS-DOS was DOS, which is also the generic term for disk operating system, and is shared with dozens of disk operating systems called DOS.
NetWare is a discontinued computer network operating system developed by Novell, Inc. It initially used cooperative multitasking to run various services on a personal computer, using the IPX network protocol.
DESQview (DV) is a text mode multitasking operating environment developed by Quarterdeck Office Systems which enjoyed modest popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Running on top of DOS, it allows users to run multiple programs concurrently in multiple windows.
The Tandy 2000 is a personal computer introduced by Radio Shack in September 1983 based on the 8 MHz Intel 80186 microprocessor running MS-DOS. By comparison, the IBM PC XT used the older 4.77 MHz Intel 8088 processor, and the IBM PC/AT would later use the newer 6 MHz Intel 80286. Due to the 16-bit data bus and more efficient instruction decoding of the 80186, the Tandy 2000 ran significantly faster than other PC compatibles, and slightly faster than the PC AT. The Tandy 2000 was the company's first computer built around an Intel x86 series microprocessor; previous models used the Zilog Z80 and Motorola 6809 CPUs.
In DOS memory management, expanded memory is a system of bank switching that provided additional memory to DOS programs beyond the limit of conventional memory (640 KiB).
Network-attached storage (NAS) is a file-level computer data storage server connected to a computer network providing data access to a heterogeneous group of clients. The term "NAS" can refer to both the technology and systems involved, or a specialized device built for such functionality.
Windows NT 3.1 is the first major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft, released on July 27, 1993.
Since the rise of the personal computer in the 1980s, IBM and other vendors have created PC-based IBM-compatible mainframes which are compatible with the larger IBM mainframe computers. For a period of time PC-based mainframe-compatible systems had a lower price and did not require as much electricity or floor space. However, they sacrificed performance and were not as dependable as mainframe-class hardware. These products have been popular with mainframe developers, in education and training settings, for very small companies with non-critical processing, and in certain disaster relief roles.
PATHWORKS was the trade name used by Digital Equipment Corporation of Maynard, Massachusetts for a series of programs that eased the interoperation of Digital's minicomputers and servers with personal computers. It was available for both PC and Mac systems, with support for MS-DOS, OS/2 and Microsoft Windows on the PC. Before it was named PATHWORKS, it was known as PCSA.
Corvus Systems was a computer technology company that offered, at various points in its history, computer hardware, software, and complete PC systems.
3+Share, also known simply as 3+ or 3 Plus, was a pioneering file and print sharing product from 3Com. Introduced in the early 1980s, 3+Share was competitive with Novell's NetWare in the network server business throughout the 1980s. It was replaced by the joint Microsoft-3Com LAN Manager in 1990, but 3Com exited the server market in 1991.
RM Nimbus was a range of personal computers from British company Research Machines sold from 1985 until the early 1990s, after which the designation Nimbus was discontinued. The first of these computers, the RM Nimbus PC-186, was not IBM PC compatible, but its successors the PC-286 and PC-386 were. RM computers were predominantly sold to schools and colleges in the United Kingdom for use as LAN workstations in classrooms.
This article presents a timeline of events in the history of 16-bit x86 DOS-family disk operating systems from 1980 to present. Non-x86 operating systems named "DOS" are not part of the scope of this timeline.
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few operating systems attempting to be compatible with MS-DOS, are sometimes referred to as "DOS". MS-DOS was the main operating system for IBM PC compatibles during the 1980s, from which point it was gradually superseded by operating systems offering a graphical user interface (GUI), in various generations of the graphical Microsoft Windows operating system.
DOS is a family of disk-based operating systems for IBM PC compatible computers. The DOS family primarily consists of IBM PC DOS and a rebranded version, Microsoft's MS-DOS, both of which were introduced in 1981. Later compatible systems from other manufacturers include DR-DOS (1988), ROM-DOS (1989), PTS-DOS (1993), and FreeDOS (1998). MS-DOS dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995.
The ICL DRS was a range of departmental computers from International Computers Limited (ICL). Standing originally for Distributed Resource System, the full name was later dropped in favour of the abbreviation.
MS-Net, sometimes stylized as MS-NET, was a network operating system sold by Microsoft in the 1980s, the earliest days of local area networking.
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