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Article #73971

Re: Patent on a standard-byte order for intermachine communication

#73971
From: Lance A. Brown
Date: Tue, 16 Jul 1991 18:25
52 lines
3248 bytes
That may not help, but RFC 1014 may be helpful in proving prior art
regarding this patent.  The beginning of that RFC follows:

Lance Brown

-------CUT HERE-----
Network Working Group                             Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Request for Comments: 1014                                     June 1987


               XDR: External Data Representation Standard

STATUS OF THIS MEMO

   This RFC describes a standard that Sun Microsystems, Inc., and others
   are using, one we wish to propose for the Internet's consideration.
   Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

1. INTRODUCTION

   XDR is a standard for the description and encoding of data.  It is
   useful for transferring data between different computer
   architectures, and has been used to communicate data between such
   diverse machines as the SUN WORKSTATION*, VAX*, IBM-PC*, and Cray*.
   XDR fits into the ISO presentation layer, and is roughly analogous in
   purpose to X.409, ISO Abstract Syntax Notation.  The major difference
   between these two is that XDR uses implicit typing, while X.409 uses
   explicit typing.

   XDR uses a language to describe data formats.  The language can only
   be used only to describe data; it is not a programming language.
   This language allows one to describe intricate data formats in a
   concise manner. The alternative of using graphical representations
   (itself an informal language) quickly becomes incomprehensible when
   faced with complexity.  The XDR language itself is similar to the C
   language [1], just as Courier [4] is similar to Mesa. Protocols such
   as Sun RPC (Remote Procedure Call) and the NFS* (Network File System)
   use XDR to describe the format of their data.

   The XDR standard makes the following assumption: that bytes (or
   octets) are portable, where a byte is defined to be 8 bits of data.
   A given hardware device should encode the bytes onto the various
   media in such a way that other hardware devices may decode the bytes
   without loss of meaning.  For example, the Ethernet* standard
   suggests that bytes be encoded in "little-endian" style [2], or least
   significant bit first.
----------CUT HERE---------
--
Lance A. Brown <brown@cs.utk.edu>
  The Crystal Wind is the Storm, and the Storm is Data,
     and the Data is Life -- The Player's Litany
                                 from _The Long Run_ by D.K. Moran
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From: brown@cs.utk.edu (Lance A. Brown)
Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss
Subject: Re: Patent on a standard-byte order for intermachine communication
Message-ID: <BROWN.91Jul16142541@thud.cs.utk.edu>
Date: 16 Jul 91 18:25:41 GMT
References: <9107131607.AA14833@mole.gnu.ai.mit.edu>
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Organization: Univ. of Tenn., Knoxville - CS Department
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In-Reply-To: rms@gnu.ai.mit.edu's message of 13 Jul 91 16:07:45 GMT