Kitten is a real-time, scalable, variable bandwidth, platform independent, peer-to-peer, intelligent, dynamically reconfigurable, self-addressing, token ring network device and protocol.

The foundation of this product was formerly known as ZIPI, based on a network protocol and technology developed by Lynx Crowe, built and tested in the G-WIZ Labs of Gibson Guitar Company.

Features

kitten - token ring network device and protocol.

Kitten is a token-ring networking and control system with enormous advantages over Ethernet systems in widespread use today. To enumerate some features:

• Kitten is deterministic, which is a feature shared by most token-ring networks. A Kitten system has predictable timing because it not only can determine the time it will take for a message to be delivered, it can also guarantee a maximum time for delivery.

• Kitten is a variable bandwidth system. Bandwidth is one of the biggest limitations for any network system. Kitten deals with the limitations by dynamically deciding how to divide up the limited bandwidth, so that messages requiring higher bandwidth get a bigger proportion of the resource than messages that only need a lower amount.

• Kitten is a peer-to-peer system, rather than master-slave. Any device with a Kitten chip in it is capable of running the network at any time. Generally, the fastest Kitten device in the network will act as “ringmaster”—but if that device goes down, any other Kitten device can restart the ring quickly, with little network down-time.

• Kitten is compatible with the Open System Interconnect (OSI) model for connecting diverse systems. Specifically, as currently designed, it handles layers 1 (physical), 2 (transport) and 3 (routing). If we later feel it’s desirable, there are already hooks in the software to handle all seven layers and make Kitten fully OSI-compliant.

• Kitten is dynamically reconfigurable. It intelligently reconfigures itself as the network changes, with a minimum of operator intervention

• Kitten is plug-and-play. Because a Kitten system dynamically reconfigures itself, it instantly recognizes and accepts as a resource any new device that enters the network. Similarly, Kitten adjusts automatically when some device leaves the network for any reason.

• Kitten handles large networks. Bandwidth is the limiting factor, not the number of devices. Each ring could have thousands of devices without a problem.

• Kitten is readily expandable. It has a unique addressing system that uses a variable structure with low overhead; it dynamically addresses all devices on the network, no matter how many of them there are. Kitten will never run out of addresses (though it could potentially run out of bandwidth).

• Kitten is platform independent. The software on the chip will run on any device; you just have to make sure the card the chip is on will work in that device.

• Kitten is hot-pluggable. Devices can be plugged into or out of a Kitten connection without the system needing to be turned off first.

• Kitten is a hard real-time system; it responds to network changes within milliseconds. It is capable of operating close to the theoretical hardware limits while providing a low system-imposed overhead.

• Kitten is a multi-media system. It’s ideally suited to work with audio and video systems requiring speed and precision. Kitten was first designed for live music performance conditions. Almost everything else is easier.

• Kitten is low cost. A Kitten card should cost between $100-150 to make. This means it’s a very cheap solution for medium to large LANs and control systems.

Advantages

kitten - token ring network device and protocol.

Kitten’s main competition in the marketplace is Ethernet, and Kitten has significant advantages on almost all fronts.

Ethernet systems are non-deterministic, they are not plug-and-play, they have fixed bit rates, they don’t have variable bandwidth (at least, not intentionally), they are not nearly as expandable and they do not work in hard real-time. A Kitten system offers multiple advantages, including:

1. Speed. Kitten’s real-time, deterministic, variable rate characteristics allow it to work much faster than any Ethernet system with the same bit rate.

2. Efficiency. In even the most well set up Ethernet system, between 5-15% of the bandwidth is used up at any given time with collisions between information packets. Kitten’s token ring nature reduces collisions to zero, allowing that much more bandwidth for passing messages. Kitten’s intelligent varying of bandwidth will also increase the network’s efficiency.

3. Reliability. When the master server in an Ethernet network goes down, the whole system is helpless until it’s restored. If a server goes down in a Kitten network, the information and applications on that server will be unavailable until it comes back up, but the other Kitten devices will take over instantly and the rest of the network will function as before. People will no longer have to complain, “I couldn’t print that vital report because the server was down.”

4. Convertibility. No organization currently working on Ethernet will need to go broke converting to Kitten. Kitten cards can be made with a bridge to Ethernet, so the two systems will work compatibly with one another. The most important machines on the network can be converted to Kitten immediately, and they can be made a subset of the network as a whole. Within that subset, they will function as a Kitten network, with all the advantages that brings. Outside that subset, the network will perform no worse than it did before the conversion. The organization can then upgrade its entire network at whatever rate it can afford.

5. No rewiring. The standard Kitten design works with 10-base T (twisted pair) wiring, the most common wiring in use today. Kitten chips can work through fiber optic or coaxial (thin net) cables, or any other future wiring standards.

6. Simplicity. No expensive Novell teams are needed to hook up the network. Just install the Kitten card in its device, attach the proper cables, load the driver software, and the device is automatically a part of the network.

Kitten also compares favorably with Universal Serial Bus (USB) networks. While these tree-structured networks have some plug-and-play capability, they don’t have nearly as much room to expand into as Kitten. They are master-slave rather than peer-to-peer, so they share that reliability problem with Ethernet. USB networks are also powered from a central source, so the number of devices they can run is limited by that source; each Kitten chip, meanwhile, runs on its device’s own power, so you can put as many devices online as the bandwidth can handle.

At its slowest speeds, Kitten runs as fast as FireWire; at its fastest speeds, it leaves FireWire in the dust. FireWire is also a fixed bandwidth system instead of variable the way Kitten is. We feel Kitten has explosive commercial potential.

Solutions

kitten - token ring network device and protocol.

Problems Kitten Solves:

• Addressing - IP addresses are already running short.  Many proposals are being floated about how to improve on the IP assignment scheme now in place, but this will buy a little time only, ten to twenty years by most estimates.  Kitten can handle up to 10 trillion addresses.  That is enough to handle not just current foreseeable needs for personal and business and government addresses, but even the demands of micro-tech.
• Reliability Problems - as a true peer to peer system, Kitten can only be brought down by complete power failures or severing all connections between the machines.  This ruggedness will greatly increase the productivity of many companies.  Even if the device currently performing the hub usual functions (providing the clock for example) goes off line, the next functioning Kitten device will take over, usually within microseconds.  There will be no noticeable impairment of the network.
• Reconfiguration Down Time - Install or remove devices without having to take down the network, or perform any configurations or crashing the system.  Kitten autonomously will address, configure and allow the device to enter the network or withdraw from it without disturbing or significantly slowing it down. 
• No Real Time Capabilities - Most current LANs do not provide the speed and deterministic lag times needed  necessary to allow multi channel video conferencing at film frame rates while continuing with normal operations.  Kitten can provide this by application of (patent pending) algorithms created by Mr. Crowe that dynamically vary bandwidth over the system. It can juggle routing, and priorities over the fiber, wire, IR, as needed to optimize the system performance.
• Inefficiency - Because of the inefficiency inherent in the Ethernet broadcast Media Access Control strategy, even a well-run, fully optimized Ethernet network will carry 5% to 15% junk information on it at any given time, depending on the system's loading.  In a network with problems, the amount can easily reach 25%.  The token ring MAC of Kitten never has any levels near that. "Junk is eliminated by the first Kitten device to receive it.  As token ring patents expired several years ago, it is now possible to use this technology without the crippling royalty overhead that had kept it as a fringe protocol until now.
• Platform Interoperability - Because Kittens "brains" are held in a chip on a board, it doesn't care what hardware or OS it is working with.  It relies on the usual API's to interface with it's host device. through whatever backplane bus - PCI, Nubus, VME, whatever.  Many platforms, one network.

Ethernet is a "dumb" technology designed when chips were expensive, and slow, and "10 base T" communication between computers was faster than they could process. Ethernet has gotten faster, but it is still dumb, and now it is much slower than CPU's.  The IP addressing scheme is about to implode. They're no longer adequate.

Kitten is "intelligent", self-contained, takes full advantage of modern chip capabilities and pricing and increases efficiency and lowers both installation and maintenance costs for anyone who has a network.  It will not run out of addresses.