> The Lisp Machine system is a multi-processor in which each active user is assigned a "personal" computer consisting of a medium-scale processor, a suitable amount of memory, and a swapping disk. Files are stored in a central file-system accessed through Chaosnet. This shared file-system retains the traditional advantages of a time-sharing system, namely inter-user communication, shared programs, and centralized backup and maintenance. At the same time, by giving each active user his own processor, the Lisp Machine system is much more capable than a time-sharing system at executing Lisp programs several million words in size efficiently and with rapid interactive response. Because Chaosnet is taking the place of the file disk in a conventional system, it must be fast (both in response and in throughput), it must be reliable (this is the reason why there is no centralized control), and it must allow connection of several dozen machines. However, it does not need to operate over long distances. Chaosnet is used to access other shared resources in addition to the file system; these include printers, tape drives, and one-of-a-kind specialized processors and I/O devices.
Nothing really these days. It was a thicknet (10BASE5) LAN similar to PUP with service names (strings) rather than port numbers. We used it at MIT pretty much only inbetween the AI and LCS machines (which were all in the same machine room and building) but was never really commercialized except that early machines from Symbolics and LMI were just CADRs which had chaosnet interfaces in them so if you had any of those early lispms you needed chaosnet to talk to them.
There were other experimental LAN systems around as well, some commercial some not.
It was all superseded in the mid-late 80s by IEEE ethernet.
It's a little bit of a nostalgia trip for me but if you never used it there's not much to learn in retrospect.
It was used way beyond the 9th floor of 545 Tech Square. To the west, the longest cable run was to the NW16 Plasma Science and Fusion Center, I think there were only 2 taps on that cable, it was marginal. To the far south the Mathematics Department in Building 2, and it went east to Building 20 at minimum.
