The ARCNET Tutorial PowerPoint Slide Show provides an introduction to the basic concepts of ARCNET.

The ARCNET Tutorial PDF, provided by Contemporary Controls, provides an in-depth technical analysis of ARCNET.

Exerpt:
ARCNET—Embedded Network, Industrial LAN or Fieldbus?

ARCNET was originally classified as a local area network or LAN. A LAN is defined as a group of nodes that communicate to one another over a geographically-limited area usually within one building or within a campus of buildings. That was the intent of ARCNET when it was originally introduced as an office automation LAN by Datapoint Corporation in the late 1970s. Datapoint envisioned a network with distributed computing power operating as one larger computer. This system was referred to as ARC (attached resource computer) and the network, that connected these resources, was called ARCNET.

Arc20 is a set of DOS functions, written in C, which can be used to initialize a COM20020 and send/receive ARCNET messages using the COM20020. This code can also be used on COM20022 based products with minimal changes. This code can also act as the start of a COM20020 or COM20022 driver.

The COM20020 (Universal Local Area Network Controller with MicrocontrollerInterface and 2K X 8 RAM On Chip) Data Sheet is provided free-of-charge from Standard Microsystems Corporation (SMSC).

The COM20022 (10 Mbps ARCNET Controller with 2K x 8 On-Board RAM) Data Sheetis provided free-of-charge from Standard Microsystems Corporation (SMSC).