Apple Attachment Unit Interface ( AAUI ) is a mechanical re-design by Apple of the standard Attachment Unit Interface (AUI) used to connect computer equipment to Ethernet . The AUI was popular in the era before the dominance of 10BASE-T networking that started in the early 1990s; the AAUI was an attempt to make the connector much smaller and more user friendly, though the proprietary nature of the interface was also criticized.
17-399: AAUI is part of a system of Ethernet peripherals intended to make connecting over Ethernet easier. At the time of the introduction of AAUI, Ethernet systems usually were 10BASE2 , also known as thinnet. Apple's system is called FriendlyNet. A FriendlyNet 10BASE2 system does not use BNC T-connectors or separate 50 Ω terminators . Instead of a single BNC connector that is inserted into
34-515: A T-connector placed inline, the FriendlyNet transceiver has two BNC connectors, one on each side, to which the cables are attached. The transceiver automatically terminates the network if a cable is missing from either side. Additionally, Apple 10BASE2 cables terminate the network when no device is attached to them. Thus the number of mistakes that could be made hooking up a thinnet network is reduced considerably. Since any of these mistakes can disable
51-463: A sliding clip to mechanically secure the connection. AAUI replaces these with a small 14-position, 0.05-inch-spaced ribbon contact connector. This connector may have been chosen to avoid confusion with the monitor port on early Macintoshes , which also uses a DA-15. The connector locks into position using two clips or hooks on the sides of the connector outside of the shell which automatically clicks on when plugged in, and can be removed by pulling back on
68-551: A sliding sheath over the body of the connector, disengaging the hooks. Third-party AAUI devices often omit this sheath, requiring the user to directly squeeze small tabs on the sides of the plug housing to detach the hooks. AAUI signals have the same description, function, and electrical requirements as the Attachment Unit Interface (AUI) signals of the same name, as detailed in IEEE 802.3 -1990 CSMA/CD Standard, section 7, with
85-467: A thick and stiff coaxial cable up to 500 meters (1,600 ft) in length. Up to 100 stations can be connected to the cable using vampire taps and share a single collision domain with 10 Mbit/s of bandwidth shared among them. The system is difficult to install and maintain. 10BASE5 was superseded by much cheaper and more convenient alternatives: first by 10BASE2 based on a thinner coaxial cable (1985), and then, once Ethernet over twisted pair
102-431: Is called "yellow cable", "orange hose", or sometimes humorously "frozen yellow garden hose". 10BASE5 coaxial cables had a maximum length of 500 meters (1,600 ft). Up to 100 nodes could be connected to a 10BASE5 segment. Transceiver nodes can be connected to cable segments with N connectors , or via a vampire tap , which allows new nodes to be added while existing connections are live. A vampire tap clamps onto
119-523: The Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.226 via cp1108 cp1108, Varnish XID 763228771 Upstream caches: cp1108 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Fri, 29 Nov 2024 05:46:42 GMT 10BASE5 10BASE5 (also known as thick Ethernet or thicknet ) was the first commercially available variant of Ethernet . The technology was standardized in 1982 as IEEE 802.3 . 10BASE5 uses
136-429: The cable has a 50 ohm resistor attached. Typically this resistor is built into a male N connector and attached to the cable's end just past the last device. With termination missing, or if there is a break in the cable, the signal on the bus will be reflected, rather than dissipated when it reaches the end. This reflected signal is indistinguishable from a collision and prevents communication. Adding new stations to
153-490: The cable, a hole is drilled through the outer shielding, and a spike is forced to pierce the outer three layers and contact the inner conductor while other spikes bite into the outer braided shield. Care is required to keep the outer shield from touching the spike; installation kits include a "coring tool" to drill through the outer layers and a "braid pick" to clear stray pieces of the outer shield. Transceivers should be installed only at precise 2.5-meter intervals. This distance
170-509: The cost of an external transceiver. Apple eventually abandoned the system and sold off the name. Macintosh Quadra , Centris , PowerBook 500 , Duo Dock II (for PowerBook Duo) and early Power Macintoshes have AAUI ports, which require external transceivers. By the time AAUI was nearing the end of its life, the cost of an AAUI transceiver became a burden for consumers. Later models include both AAUI and modular connector ports for directly connecting 10BASE-T; either can be used, but not both at
187-418: The ends were not detachable, making it difficult to wire them through walls. Unfortunately, when mixing and matching Apple and non-Apple 10BASE2 devices, there were many seemingly natural configurations of cables and connectors which would cause the network to become unreliable or unusable in the area, reducing the value of the complex and proprietary Apple 10BASE2 wiring system. AUI uses a DA-15 connector and
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#1732859202007204-599: The exception that most hosts provide only 5 volts of power rather than the 12 volts required for most AUI transceivers. An adapter containing a power supply to provide the required 12 volts was available from Apple to permit connection of standard AUI transceivers to an AAUI port. This facilitated direct connection to 10BASE-F ( fibre optic ) and 10BASE5 (ThickNet) Ethernet networks, for which AAUI transceivers were not available. [REDACTED] Media related to Apple Attachment Unit Interface at Wikimedia Commons 10BASE2 Too Many Requests If you report this error to
221-468: The maximum segment length of 500 meters (1,600 ft). For its physical layer 10BASE5 uses cable similar to RG-8/U coaxial cable but with extra braided shielding. This is a stiff, 0.375-inch (9.5 mm) diameter cable with an impedance of 50 ohms , a solid center conductor, a foam insulating filler, a shielding braid, and an outer jacket. The outer jacket is often yellow-to-orange fluorinated ethylene propylene (for fire resistance) so it often
238-482: The network segment, this presents a significant improvement. FriendlyNet equipment was expensive. Because of this, Apple's computers, billed as having built-in Ethernet, were expensive to connect to Ethernet, perhaps adding as much as a tenth to the total price of the computer system. Additionally, AAUI held no advantage for any system other than 10BASE2, and thus as 10BASE-T became ubiquitous it became impossible to justify
255-753: The same time. AAUI connectors are also present on some Processor Direct Slot Ethernet adapter cards used in Macintosh LC and Performa machines. AAUI had disappeared by the late 1990s, when new Apple machines, starting with the beige Power Macintosh G3 series, include only the modular connector ports. Many third parties also created AAUI transceivers. Most made simplifications to the connectors and cables, presumably to reduce costs. Most third parties, as well as any non-Apple equipment, would use standard 10BASE2 cabling, including T-connectors and manual termination. Additionally, Apple's 10BASE2 cables were not appropriate for all uses since they only came in fixed lengths and
272-413: Was chosen to not correspond to the signal's wavelength; this ensures that the reflections from multiple taps are not in phase. These suitable points are marked on the cable with black bands. The cable is required to be one continuous run; T-connections are not allowed. As is the case with most other high-speed buses, segments must be terminated at each end. For coaxial-cable-based Ethernet, each end of
289-459: Was developed, by 10BASE-T (1990) and its successors 100BASE-TX and 1000BASE-T . In 2003, the IEEE 802.3 working group deprecated 10BASE5 for new installations. The name 10BASE5 is derived from several characteristics of the physical medium. The 10 refers to its transmission speed of 10 Mbit/s. The BASE is short for baseband signaling (as opposed to broadband ), and the 5 stands for
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