Product Reference
2–45
many industry suppliers. Standard RJ45 connectors are used for all con nectio ns in a tw isted- pair
cable network. Twisted-pair Ethernet cables must be 100 meters or les s betw een an y nod e and h ub
or repeater.
Using Network Operating Systems (NOS)
The most common method of using the Little Board/486e Ethernet LAN interface is by means of a
NOS. The NOS can be either part of the computer’s OS; DOS and Windows 9x, or provided
separately.
Novel Netware’s NOS supports client server communication; a central computer that runs Netware
as its NOS provides file server and ne twor k se rvice s to the di stribu te d sy stem s co nne cted to th e
LAN. Each node on the network must also have a compatible NOS installed.
Modern network architectures are based on the Open Standards Interconnect (OSI) model that
defines:
! Layers of software between the network hardware
! Network operating system
! Applications that use the network services
At the bottom level is the actual Ethernet cable and the hardware interface, in this case, the
Little Board/486e LAN interface. A driver talks directly with the hardware, masking any unique
differences in the hardware from the layers above it, including the NOSs. Several NOS drivers
compatible with the Little Board/486e’s LAN hardware are provided on the Utilities diskette that is
included with Little Board/486e Development Kit. New drivers or new versions of existing drivers
are made available on Ampro’s Technical Support bulletin board. The driver is the only unique
software needed to use the LAN interface. The supported NOSs provide the other layers in the OSI
model.