Helix HeadRoom

Last updated

HeadRoom is a DOS context switching and multitasking memory manager produced by Helix Software Company in the late 1980s and early 1990s. HeadRoom managed multiple terminate-and-stay-resident programs (TSRs) and was the first TSR manager to allow sharing of address space and interrupts among TSRs in DOS. HeadRoom v1.0 was released in September 1988. [1] [2] [3]

In April 1989, Helix Software released HeadRoom v1.1 together with the "HeadRoom Network Extensions." This version added support for network communications processes. The HeadRoom Network Extensions intercepted and buffered NETBIOS and TCP/IP communications requests, allowing HeadRoom to manage network communications software such as mainframe Terminal Emulators and e-mail programs. The background communications of these programs would continue while the programs were swapped out. HeadRoom would reactivate the swapped-out programs when activity occurred on the NETBIOS or TCP/IP sockets. [4]

In October 1989, [5] Helix Software released HeadRoom v2.0 which included support for Microsoft Windows and LIM EMS v4.0. Starting in March 1990, this version of HeadRoom was bundled with AST Research RAMpage, RAMpage Plus and SixPack memory expansion boards. [6]

In June 1990, Helix Software licensed technology from Headroom to Digital Communications Associates for use with their IRMA boards and IRMALan software. [7]

In January 1991, Helix released the final version of Headroom, v2.03 and thereafter incorporated HeadRoom's features into its Netroom LAN memory manager, a decision which caused market confusion. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IBM AIX</span> Series of Unix operating systems from IBM

AIX is a series of proprietary Unix operating systems developed and sold by IBM for several of its computer platforms.

An Internet Protocol address is a numerical label such as 192.0.2.1 that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. An IP address serves two main functions: network interface identification, and location addressing.

Steganography is the practice of representing information within another message or physical object, in such a manner that the presence of the information is not evident to human inspection. In computing/electronic contexts, a computer file, message, image, or video is concealed within another file, message, image, or video. The word steganography comes from Greek steganographia, which combines the words steganós, meaning "covered or concealed", and -graphia meaning "writing".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wake-on-LAN</span> Mechanism to wake up computers via a network

Wake-on-LAN is an Ethernet or Token Ring computer networking standard that allows a computer to be turned on or awakened from sleep mode by a network message.

Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is an Internet Standard protocol for collecting and organizing information about managed devices on IP networks and for modifying that information to change device behaviour. Devices that typically support SNMP include cable modems, routers, switches, servers, workstations, printers, and more.

The Routing Information Protocol (RIP) is one of the oldest distance-vector routing protocols which employs the hop count as a routing metric. RIP prevents routing loops by implementing a limit on the number of hops allowed in a path from source to destination. The largest number of hops allowed for RIP is 15, which limits the size of networks that RIP can support.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Network address translation</span> Protocol facilitating connection of one IP address space to another

Network address translation (NAT) is a method of mapping an IP address space into another by modifying network address information in the IP header of packets while they are in transit across a traffic routing device. The technique was originally used to bypass the need to assign a new address to every host when a network was moved, or when the upstream Internet service provider was replaced, but could not route the network's address space. It has become a popular and essential tool in conserving global address space in the face of IPv4 address exhaustion. One Internet-routable IP address of a NAT gateway can be used for an entire private network.

Systems Network Architecture (SNA) is IBM's proprietary networking architecture, created in 1974. It is a complete protocol stack for interconnecting computers and their resources. SNA describes formats and protocols but, in itself, is not a piece of software. The implementation of SNA takes the form of various communications packages, most notably Virtual Telecommunications Access Method (VTAM), the mainframe software package for SNA communications.

Ungermann-Bass, also known as UB and UB Networks, was a computer networking company in the 1980s to 1990s. Located in Santa Clara, California, UB was the first large networking company independent of any computer manufacturer. Along with competitors 3Com and Sytek, UB was responsible for starting the networking business in Silicon Valley in 1979. UB was founded by Ralph Ungermann and Charlie Bass. John Davidson, vice president of engineering, was one of the creators of NCP, the transport protocol of the ARPANET before TCP.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Network interface controller</span> Hardware component that connects a computer to a network

A network interface controller is a computer hardware component that connects a computer to a computer network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Kahn</span> American Internet pioneer, computer scientist

Robert Elliot Kahn is an American electrical engineer who, along with Vint Cerf, first proposed the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP), the fundamental communication protocols at the heart of the Internet.

IPX/SPX stands for Internetwork Packet Exchange/Sequenced Packet Exchange. IPX and SPX are networking protocols used initially on networks using the Novell NetWare operating systems. They also became widely used on networks deploying Microsoft Windows LANS, as they replaced NetWare LANS, but are no longer widely used. IPX/SPX was also widely used prior to and up to Windows XP, which supported the protocols, while later Windows versions do not, and TCP/IP took over for networking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FTP Software</span> Defunct software company

FTP Software, Inc., was an American software company incorporated in 1986 by James van Bokkelen, John Romkey, Nancy Connor, Roxanne van Bokkelen, Dave Bridgham, and several other founding shareholders, who met at Toscanini's in Central Square after an email went out over the Bandykin mailing list looking for people interested in starting a company. Their main product was PC/TCP, a full-featured, standards-compliant TCP/IP package for DOS. The company was based in Andover, Massachusetts. It also had a number of offices throughout the United States and overseas.

The Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) is a set of computer interface specifications for an autonomous computer subsystem that provides management and monitoring capabilities independently of the host system's CPU, firmware and operating system. IPMI defines a set of interfaces used by system administrators for out-of-band management of computer systems and monitoring of their operation. For example, IPMI provides a way to manage a computer that may be powered off or otherwise unresponsive by using a network connection to the hardware rather than to an operating system or login shell. Another use case may be installing a custom operating system remotely. Without IPMI, installing a custom operating system may require an administrator to be physically present near the computer, insert a DVD or a USB flash drive containing the OS installer and complete the installation process using a monitor and a keyboard. Using IPMI, an administrator can mount an ISO image, simulate an installer DVD, and perform the installation remotely.

lwIP is a widely used open-source TCP/IP stack designed for embedded systems. lwIP was originally developed by Adam Dunkels at the Swedish Institute of Computer Science and is now developed and maintained by a worldwide network of developers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Computer network</span> Network that allows computers to share resources and communicate with each other

A computer network is a set of computers sharing resources located on or provided by network nodes. Computers use common communication protocols over digital interconnections to communicate with each other. These interconnections are made up of telecommunication network technologies based on physically wired, optical, and wireless radio-frequency methods that may be arranged in a variety of network topologies.

NicheStack is a closed source IPv4 network layer and application implementation for operating systems, written in ANSI "C" and is one of three available from InterNiche Technologies, Inc., designed for use in embedded systems. Its transport layer implementation has historical roots in BSD and the IP layer was derived from a Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) implementation.

RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) or InfiniBand over Ethernet (IBoE) is a network protocol that allows remote direct memory access (RDMA) over an Ethernet network. It does this by encapsulating an InfiniBand (IB) transport packet over Ethernet. There are two RoCE versions, RoCE v1 and RoCE v2. RoCE v1 is an Ethernet link layer protocol and hence allows communication between any two hosts in the same Ethernet broadcast domain. RoCE v2 is an internet layer protocol which means that RoCE v2 packets can be routed. Although the RoCE protocol benefits from the characteristics of a converged Ethernet network, the protocol can also be used on a traditional or non-converged Ethernet network.

Helix Software Company was a New York City based software company founded in October 1986. The company developed software tools and utilities for DOS and Windows. In 1993, Helix licensed some of its memory management technology to Microsoft for use in MS-DOS 6.0. Microsoft subsequently released Helix's memory management technology as part of the MEMMAKER and EMM386 DOS commands.

NETROOM is a DOS memory manager produced by Helix Software Company in the 1990s. Introduced in August 1990, NETROOM was originally titled "LAN Memory Manager." Version 1.0 of NETROOM was a re-packaged version of Helix's HeadRoom with the HeadRoom Network Extensions, bundled together and targeted to network users. NETROOM loaded network drivers into a virtual machine created using an expanded memory page frame. NETROOM allowed this virtual machine to run as a multitasked background process. NETROOM included support for Novell NetWare, Banyan VINES, and LAN Manager networks. NETROOM was originally available only in multi-user packs starting with a four user license.

References

  1. USpatent 5167030
  2. USpatent 5371871
  3. Mendelson, Edward (28 Feb 1989). "Headroom One-Ups Software Carousel With Memory-Management Innovation": 38. Retrieved 28 April 2015.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. Ansus, Jeff (22 May 1989). "Headroom Software Update Swaps Out LAN Programs": 14. Retrieved 28 April 2015.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. Brownstein, Mark (23 Oct 1989). "Headroom Allows Users To Swap Out Programs With No RAM Overhead": 16. Retrieved 28 April 2015.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. "SixPak 286". InfoWorld. 26 Mar 1990. p. 33. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  7. "Industry Briefs". 30 Jun 1990: 9. Retrieved 28 April 2015.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  8. Ayre, Rick (14 September 1993). "Best Utilities": 139. Retrieved 29 Apr 2015.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)