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In article <19266@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> fair@ucbarpa.Berkeley.EDU (Erik E. Fair) writes:
>I attended a talk on MAP (the Manufacturering Automation Protocol)
>last fall and came away with two observations:
>
>1. MAP is simply a packaging of the ISO protocol suite on top of an
>	IEEE 802.2 (or was that 802.4?) token passing broadband LAN.
>

MAP 2.1 specifies IEEE 802.4 broadband token bus at the physical layer with
the appropriate Media Access Control (MAC) service underneath IEEE 802.2
logical link control at the data link layer.  The recent exchanges between
DEC and GM leave uncertain the future physical media.  A MAP demonstration
at the Hannover Fair earlier this year showed MAP additionally running
on carrierband 802.4 and IEEE 802.3 (CSMA/CD baseband => "Ethernet").

>2. There are (if you use the ISO Reference Model terminology) NO
>	application protocol standards within MAP. That is to say that
>	you can get the bits from your computer to that robot on the
>	factory floor, but there is no standard for interpretation of
>	what the bits mean.

MAP 2.1 specifies three application layer protocols:  a subset of FTAM,
a Common Application Service Elements (CASE) kernel, and a Manufacturing
Message Format Standard (MMFS called "memphis").  The latter is
the service that is used to manipulate the equipment on the floor.
MAP 3.0 is supposedly going to include a successor to MMFS which is
called Manufacturing Message Service (MMS).  I believe that MMS derives
from an EIA standard.  MAP 3.0 is supposed to also include support for
Network Management and Directory Services definitions as well as a more
complete FTAM definition.  Inclusion of Network Management and Directory
Services is interesting in that the international standards are not near
completion.

>
>The MAP specification comes mostly from General Motors, and thus they
>should be able to provide documentation for it.

Well, they do.  Unfortunately, it now seems that they charge for the
documentation.  I got a free copy a year and a half ago.  I recently
tried to get a new copy from MAP Support Group at GM using the
address I used last time.  What I got back was a series of glossies
on the MAP/TOP User's Group, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers
(which is the MAP Secretariat), etc.  On one of the glossies was listed
the documents available from SME.  MAP 2.2 specs are listed at $25.
They can be had from:

			MAP & TOP
			One SME Drive, PO Box 930
			Dearborn, MI 48121  USA
			(313) 271-1500

>
>Can anyone explain what TOP (the Technical Office Protocol) suite is
>about, and whose idea it was?

According to the Preface to V1.0 of the TOP spec:

"Its (TOP) objective is to establish a uniform set of protocols for office
data communications, supporting computers and other intelligent devices
in a multi-vendor enviroment."

The Boeing Company is primary commercial force behind TOP.  TOP seems to
me to be a weak sister to MAP in that GM has spend much more time and money
and advertising effort in order to advance their (i.e., MAP) cause.  Until
recently, one could call TOP "MAP on Ethernet".  TOP V3.0 (there was
no V2.0) was recently released and is supposed to support X.25, token
bus, and token ring (802.5) as alternate lower layers.  I don't think
that V3.0 specs are fully available yet; I'm getting this information from
an April issue of _Computerworld_.  With the current hoo-hah between DEC
and MAP regarding the suitability of token bus versus Ethernet, it seems
to me that the main difference between MAP and TOP as they mature will
be at the application layer -- which, I believe, is as it should be.

TOP specs are also listed in my glossy at $25 and are available at the
same address as above.

[ Most of my information is derived from articles in _Data Communications_,
the TOP spec, and what I can remember from attending a MAP/TOP User's Group
last year. ]

>
>	Erik E. Fair	ucbvax!fair	fair@ucbarpa.berkeley.edu

sas
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Scott Schoenthal		        Pyramid Technology Corp.
pyramid!sas				Mountain View, California