ASCII Protocol Conversion Revisited

Abstract

One of the first implementations of protocol conversion was the connection of “dumb” ASCII, async terminals to IBM 370 hosts. A protocol converter box made the ASCII terminal appear to the host as a 3270 display and made the host appear to understand the Escape sequences necessary to control the ASCII terminal. In this work, we will describe an approach to connecting “smart” async ASCII devices to 370 hosts. By having a single screen at the microcomputer instead of two (one at the controller and one at the display) and by utilizing compression and async data links, the performance of remote workstations on slow links can be greatly improved. © 1990 IEEE