FOSSIL
Encyclopedia
FOSSIL is a standard protocol for allowing serial communication
for telecommunication
s programs under the DOS
operating system
. FOSSIL is an acronym for Fido Opus SEAdog Standard Interface Layer. Fido refers to FidoBBS, Opus refers to Opus-CBCS
BBS, and SEAdog refers to a Fidonet compatible mailer. The standards document that defines the FOSSIL protocol is maintained by the Fidonet Technical Standards Committee.
A "FOSSIL driver" is simply a communications device driver
. They exist because in the early days of Fidonet, computer hardware was very diverse and there were no standards on how software was to communicate with the serial interface hardware. Initial development of FidoBBS only worked on a specific type of machine. Before FidoBBS could start spreading, it was seen that a uniform method of communicating with serial interface hardware was needed if the software was going to be used on other machines. This need was also apparent for other communications based software. The FOSSIL specification was born in 1986 so as to provide this uniform method. Software using the FOSSIL standard could communicate using the same interrupt functions no matter what hardware it was running on. This enabled the developers to concentrate on the application and not the interface to the hardware.
FOSSIL drivers are specific to the hardware they operate on because each is written to fit specifically to the serial interface hardware of that platform. FOSSIL drivers became more well known with the spread of IBM PC compatible
machines. These machines ran some form of DOS (Disk Operating System) and their BIOS
provided very poor support for serial communications—so poor that it fell far short of the needs of any non-trivial communications task. Over time, MS-DOS
and PC-DOS
became the prevalent operating systems and PC compatible hardware became predominant.
Two popular DOS based FOSSIL drivers were X00
and BNU.
A popular Windows
based FOSSIL driver is NetFoss
, which is freeware
.
SIO
is a popular OS/2
-based FOSSIL driver.
"look like a modem" to the application.
Internal ISDN cards (that did not use serial ports at all) often came with
FOSSIL drivers to make them work with
software that was originally intended for modem operation only.
Serial communications
In telecommunication and computer science, serial communication is the process of sending data one bit at a time, sequentially, over a communication channel or computer bus. This is in contrast to parallel communication, where several bits are sent as a whole, on a link with several parallel channels...
for telecommunication
Telecommunication
Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...
s programs under the DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
. FOSSIL is an acronym for Fido Opus SEAdog Standard Interface Layer. Fido refers to FidoBBS, Opus refers to Opus-CBCS
Opus-CBCS
The Opus Computer Based Conversation System was a Fidonet Bulletin Board System.Originally developed by Wynn Wagner III in 1985, Opus was one of the leading Bulletin Board Systems during the late 1980s and early 1990s....
BBS, and SEAdog refers to a Fidonet compatible mailer. The standards document that defines the FOSSIL protocol is maintained by the Fidonet Technical Standards Committee.
A "FOSSIL driver" is simply a communications device driver
Device driver
In computing, a device driver or software driver is a computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a hardware device....
. They exist because in the early days of Fidonet, computer hardware was very diverse and there were no standards on how software was to communicate with the serial interface hardware. Initial development of FidoBBS only worked on a specific type of machine. Before FidoBBS could start spreading, it was seen that a uniform method of communicating with serial interface hardware was needed if the software was going to be used on other machines. This need was also apparent for other communications based software. The FOSSIL specification was born in 1986 so as to provide this uniform method. Software using the FOSSIL standard could communicate using the same interrupt functions no matter what hardware it was running on. This enabled the developers to concentrate on the application and not the interface to the hardware.
FOSSIL drivers are specific to the hardware they operate on because each is written to fit specifically to the serial interface hardware of that platform. FOSSIL drivers became more well known with the spread of IBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...
machines. These machines ran some form of DOS (Disk Operating System) and their BIOS
BIOS
In IBM PC compatible computers, the basic input/output system , also known as the System BIOS or ROM BIOS , is a de facto standard defining a firmware interface....
provided very poor support for serial communications—so poor that it fell far short of the needs of any non-trivial communications task. Over time, MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
and PC-DOS
PC-DOS
IBM PC DOS is a DOS system for the IBM Personal Computer and compatibles, manufactured and sold by IBM from the 1980s to the 2000s....
became the prevalent operating systems and PC compatible hardware became predominant.
Two popular DOS based FOSSIL drivers were X00
X00
X00 was a popular DOS-based FOSSIL driver which was commonly used in the mid 1980s to the late 1990s and is even still used today. FOSSIL drivers were mainly used to run BBS software under MS-DOS. X00 can also be run under Windows, or even Linux and DOSEMU environments, to allow FOSSIL-aware...
and BNU.
A popular Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
based FOSSIL driver is NetFoss
NetFoss
NetFoss is a popular Network FOSSIL driver for Windows.A FOSSIL is a serial communications layer to allow DOS based software to talk to modems without dealing with hardware I/O and interrupts....
, which is freeware
Freeware
Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
.
SIO
SIO (software)
SIO is a serial port driver package for OS/2 written by Raymond L. Gwinn. It is designed to not only improve performance over OS/2's default serial drivers, but also improve compatibility. SIO contains a virtualized FOSSIL driver that can be loaded to provide FOSSIL support to DOS based...
is a popular OS/2
OS/2
OS/2 is a computer operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively. The name stands for "Operating System/2," because it was introduced as part of the same generation change release as IBM's "Personal System/2 " line of second-generation personal...
-based FOSSIL driver.
FOSSIL drivers for hardware other than serial interfaces
FOSSIL drivers have also been implemented to support other communications hardware by making it"look like a modem" to the application.
Internal ISDN cards (that did not use serial ports at all) often came with
FOSSIL drivers to make them work with
software that was originally intended for modem operation only.