Binary Synchronous Communications

Binary Synchronous Communication (BSC or Bisync) is an IBM character-oriented, half-duplex link protocol, announced in 1967 after the introduction of System/360. It replaced the synchronous transmit-receive (STR) protocol used with second generation computers. The intent was that common link management rules could be used with three different character encodings for messages.

Six-bit Transcode looked backward to older systems; USASCII with 128 characters and EBCDIC with 256 characters looked forward. Transcode disappeared very quickly but the EBCDIC and USASCII dialects of Bisync continued in use.

At one time Bisync was the most widely used communications protocol^[1] and is still in limited use in 2013.^[2]^[3]

^ Scuilli, Joseph A. (Oct 26, 1981). "Terrestrial to Satellite Switching Creates Options". Computerworld. Retrieved Aug 27, 2012.
^ Cisco. "Binary Synchronous and Asynchronous Communications (Bisync/Async)". Retrieved Oct 23, 2013.
^ Gartner. "Binary Synchronous Communications (BSC)". IT Glossary. Retrieved Oct 23, 2013.

[1] Scuilli, Joseph A. (Oct 26, 1981). "Terrestrial to Satellite Switching Creates Options". Computerworld. Retrieved Aug 27, 2012.

[2] Cisco. "Binary Synchronous and Asynchronous Communications (Bisync/Async)". Retrieved Oct 23, 2013.

[3] Gartner. "Binary Synchronous Communications (BSC)". IT Glossary. Retrieved Oct 23, 2013.

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