Login
Login

BLAST (protocol)

{{Short description|Communications protocol created in the 1980s}}

{{about|the communications protocol and software that implements it|the government-funded biotechnology algorithm and software implementing it|BLAST (biotechnology)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2015}}

BLAST (Blocked Asynchronous Transmission), like XMODEM and Kermit, is a communications protocol designed for file transfer over asynchronous communication ports and dial-up modems that achieved a significant degree of popularity during the 1980s.{{cite web |url=http://www.birds-of-the-air-press.com/bota/blast/macweek_crabb.pdf |last=Crabb|first=Don |date=February 21, 1989 |title=MacBLAST carves a place for itself in communications applications |publisher=MacWEEK |access-date=April 28, 2017 }}{{cite web |url=http://www.birds-of-the-air-press.com/bota/blast/maritime_satellite_communications.pdf |last=Staff|first=Computers in Defence|date=May 13, 1985 |title=Maritime Satellite Communications |publisher=Computers in Defence |access-date=January 31, 2014 }}{{cite web |url=http://www.birds-of-the-air-press.com/bota/blast/evaluating_micro_comm_software.pdf |last=Held|first=Gilbert |date=March 1986 |title=Evaluating microcomputer communications software |publisher=Data Communications |access-date=February 16, 2014 }}{{cite web |url=http://www.birds-of-the-air-press.com/bota/blast/unix_today.pdf |last=Magidson|first=Steve |date=May 15, 1989 |title=Moving Files Can Be A BLAST |publisher=UNIX Today |access-date=March 21, 2014 }}{{cite web |url=http://www.birds-of-the-air-press.com/bota/blast/pc_week.pdf |title=Package Offers Async Link Between Systems |date=February 10, 1987 |access-date=October 5, 2014 |publisher=PC Week }}{{cite web |url=http://www.birds-of-the-air-press.com/bota/blast/partial-listing-of-blast-users-09-01-85.pdf |title=Partial Listing of BLAST Users | date=September 1, 1985 | access-date=11 February 2014}}{{cite book |url=http://www.birds-of-the-air-press.com/bota/blast/desktop_communications.pdf |last1=Honig|first1=David A.|last2=Hoover|first2=Kenton A.|title=Desktop Communications: IBM PC, PS/2 & Compatibles|publisher=Wiley|year=1990|isbn=0-471-60613-8 |access-date=May 4, 2014}}{{cite book|url=http://www.birds-of-the-air-press.com/bota/blast/held_google_book_search_blast.pdf |last=Held|first=Gilbert|title=Understanding Data Communications: From Fundamentals to Networking|publisher=Wiley|year=1991| isbn=978-0-471-93051-8 |access-date=April 24, 2017}} Reflecting its status as a de facto standard for such transfers, BLAST, along with XMODEM, was briefly under official consideration by ANSI in the mid-80s as part of that organization's ultimately futile attempt to establish a single de jure standard.{{cite web |url=http://www.birds-of-the-air-press.com/bota/blast/ansi-asc-x12c-85-037.pdf |title=X12 Guideline, Entry Level, Asynchronous Transmissions |date=December 5, 1985 |access-date=3 December 2013 }}{{cite web |url=http://www.birds-of-the-air-press.com/bota/blast/ansi-asc-x12c-86-02-17.pdf |title=Minutes of Async Sub group of X12C1 |date=February 17, 1986 |access-date=3 December 2013 }}

Overview

BLAST grew out of the mission-critical experience of providing air pollution telemetry within the dial-up communications environment of the petroleum belt of southern Louisiana and Texas, with not only noisy telephone lines but also unexpected satellite hops to remote locations.Smith, G. W. "Aesthetic Wilderness: A Brief Personal History of the Meeting Between Art and the Machine", Birds-of-the-Air Press, 2011. {{ISBN|978-0-9846655-1-8}}Estill, Lyle "Small is Possible: Life in a Local Economy", New Society Publishers, 2008. {{ISBN|978-0-86571-603-2}} As such, BLAST was the only asynchronous protocol to have entered the 1980s computing arena with all of the following features:

BLAST thus gained a reputation as the protocol having the best combination of speed and reliability in its class.{{cite web |url=http://www.birds-of-the-air-press.com/bota/blast/xmodems_the_right_blend.pdf |date=May 13, 1985 |title=Xmodems: The right blend? |publisher=Computerworld |access-date=January 28, 2014 }}{{cite web |url=http://www.birds-of-the-air-press.com/bota/blast/southerton_unix_world.pdf |title=BLAST Rockets Your Data |date=January 1990 |access-date=August 13, 2014 |last=Southerton|first=Alan |publisher=UNIX WORLD }}{{cite web |url=http://www.birds-of-the-air-press.com/bota/blast/blasting_the_way.pdf |last1=Charbonnet Jr|first1=Paul|last2=Smith|first2=Glenn|date=January 18, 1984 |title=BLASTing the Way to Synchronous Communications |publisher=Computerworld |access-date=November 2, 2014 }}Smith, G. W. & Rubenstein, P. (1984). "The Async Route -- Best Suited for a Microcomputer's Local Traffic". Data Communications.

{{cquote|Our tests showed that when connected to a host running BLAST, MacBLAST provides the most error-free and fastest file transfers we've yet seen ... MacBLAST to BLAST never lost data and never blew a connection in our tests.|||Don Crabb, "MacBLAST carves a place for itself in communications applications", MacWEEK (February 21, 1989)}}

History

The idea for the BLAST product belongs to Paul Charbonnet, Jr., a former Data General salesman. Its original version was designed and implemented for the Data General line of Nova minicomputers{{cite magazine |magazine=InfoWorld |date=March 14, 1988 |page=11

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6j4EAAAAMBAJ

|title=Data General Minis Get Blast Software

|quote=A version of a PC communications software ... Blast II uses multilevel adaptive compression ...}}{{cite web

|title=Network World |date=March 14, 1988 |page=27

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LxMEAAAAMBAJ

|quote=Terminals linked to an MV system running BLAST II are also able to ...}} by G. W. Smith, a former BorgWarner Research Center systems engineer who, having developed a basic "ack-nak" protocol for the aforesaid telemetry application, now created an entirely new protocol with all of the above-mentioned features, and for which he devised the "BLAST" acronym.{{cite web |url=http://www.birds-of-the-air-press.com/bota/blast/times_picayune.pdf |last=Hall|first=John |date=February 18, 1989 |title=La. Pitches (Soft)wares East |publisher=The Times-Picayune |access-date=January 1, 2015 }}

This work was performed under contract to AMP Incorporated, of Baton Rouge, LA. However, it was another Baton Rouge company, Communications Research Group (CRG), which was to successfully commercialize the BLAST protocol, and which was also to employ Charbonnet and Smith as, respectively, Sales Director and Vice-president of Research and Development.

On the downside, BLAST was criticized by ZMODEM developer Chuck Forsberg because of its proprietary nature, making it "tightly bound to the fortunes of [its supplier]".{{cite web |title=XMODEM/YMODEM Protocol Reference |year=1988 |access-date=May 6, 2017 |url=http://www.blunk-electronic.de/train-z/pdf/xymodem.pdf }}

Communications Research Group

Communications Research Group (CRG) was a Baton Rouge, Louisiana based company which became a major international vendor of data communications software during the 1980s, and which software had the BLAST protocol at its core.Held, Gilbert "Understanding Data Communications: From Fundamentals to Networking", Wiley, 1991. {{ISBN|978-0-4719305-1-8}}Honig, David A. & Hoover, Kenton A. "Desktop Communications: IBM PC, PS/2 & Compatibles", Wiley, 1990. {{ISBN|0-471-60613-8}}

As representative of one of CRG's mature products, the BLAST-II file transfer software was distinguished by its wide range of features. Beyond supporting the BLAST protocol, it enabled use of the competing XMODEM,{{cite magazine |magazine=InfoWorld |title=BLAST-II file transfer software

|date=May 8, 1989 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RzoEAAAAMBAJ

|quote=Blast II supports ... Xmodem, ASCII, and ..}} encrypted and transmitted data using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), and had "versions for about a hundred different micros, minis, and mainframes".{{cite web

|url=http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ftp/e/mail.84b |title=mail.84b}} Like Columbia University's Kermit software, CRG's BLAST-II also provided a scripting language.{{cite web |title=Network World |date=January 25, 1988 |page=52

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4BIEAAAAMBAJ

|quote=BLAST II ... script language; menu-driven and bypass; same scripts run on ...}}

CRG was recognized as one of the 100 largest microcomputer software companies in the United States, and it was ultimately acquired by modem manufacturer U.S. Robotics in 1990, and which company continued to develop and sell BLAST products.{{cite web |url=http://www.birds-of-the-air-press.com/bota/blast/partial-listing-of-blast-users-09-01-85.pdf | title= CRG Staff "Partial Listing of BLAST Users" | date=September 1, 1985 | access-date=11 February 2014}}{{cite web |url=http://www.birds-of-the-air-press.com/bota/blast/Soft_Letter.pdf | title=Soft-Letter |date=4 April 1985 |publisher=Soft-Letter |access-date=12 January 2021 }}{{cite web |url=http://www.birds-of-the-air-press.com/bota/blast/Advocate_CRG_purchase.pdf |date=6 February 1990 |title=Illinois-based manufacturer purchases Communications Research Group |publisher=The Advocate |access-date=12 January 2021 }}{{cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F1DQ5qoGN5IC&q=blast+%22u.+s.+robotics%22&pg=PA415 |date=October 13, 1992 |title=U.S.Robotics advertisement for BLAST Remote Control |publisher=PC Mag |access-date=December 29, 2016 }}

See also

References

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Modem file transfer protocols}}

Category:File transfer protocols

Category:Communication software

Category:Communications protocols

Category:Software companies based in California

Category:History of software

Category:BBS file transfer protocols