BNU is a high-performance communications

device driver In computing, a device driver is a computer program that operates or controls a particular type of device that is attached to a computer or automaton. A driver provides a software interface to hardware devices, enabling operating systems and ot ...

designed to provide enhanced support for serial port communications. The BNU serial port driver was specifically targeted for use with early (late 1980s - 1990s)

DOS DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems. DOS may also refer to: Computing * Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel * Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicatio ...

-based

BBS BBS may refer to: Ammunition * BBs, BB gun metal bullets * BBs, airsoft gun plastic pellets Computing and gaming * Bulletin board system, a computer server users dial into via dial-up or telnet; precursor to the Internet * BIOS Boot Specificat ...

software. The reason for BNU and other similar enhanced serial port drivers was to provide better support for serial communications software than what was offered by the machine's BIOS and/or DOS being used on the machine. Having serial port support as provided by BNU and other similar drivers allowed the communications software programmers to spend more time on the actual applications instead of the depths and details of how to talk to the serial ports and the modems connected to them. Sending communications data across a modem link was a lot more involved than sending data to a serial printer which was basically all that was originally capable of being done with the existing serial port software support. BNU was written by David Nugent as an experimental driver for serial communications following the

FOSSIL A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

specification. David released BNU to the public in 1989 and its use in the BBS world spread rapidly. BNU was one of only two or three available FOSSIL drivers for the IBM PC compatible hardware and

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...

PC DOS PC or pc may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Player character or playable character, a fictional character controlled by a human player, usually in role-playing games or computer games * ''Port Charles'', an American daytime TV soap opera * ...

operating system. Because of this, BNU has been one of the most widely used

FOSSIL communications drivers. BNU was mainly used with DOS-based

Bulletin Board System A bulletin board system (BBS), also called computer bulletin board service (CBBS), is a computer server running software that allows users to connect to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, the user can perform functions such as ...

(BBS) software written in the late 1980s to mid-1990s. It is not used by Windows-based BBS software, but BNU can be used under Windows

NTVDM Virtual DOS machines (VDM) refer to a technology that allows running 16-bit/32-bit DOS and 16-bit Windows programs when there is already another operating system running and controlling the hardware. Overview Virtual DOS machines can operate ei ...

to run DOS-based BBS software under Windows. BNU and other similar drivers were not limited solely to being used in the BBS world. The enhanced capabilities they offered were also used to easily communicate with other serially connected devices for the same reasons that the FOSSIL specification and FOSSIL drivers were originally created. That reason, as noted above, was to separate the details of serial port communications from the actual application. The software's programmers only needed to talk to the serial driver in a standardized way to send and receive their data. The name "BNU" was originally a rip-off of AT&T's "BNU UUCP", and in that context meant "Basic Networking Utilities". The author of BNU, David Nugent, felt that the acronym was particularly apt for BNU's function. BNU was also called "Bloody Nugent's Utility" because it was written by David Nugent as one of his many BBS related utilities and it was not known at the time what the acronym "BNU" actually stood for. Th
BNUFAQ
used to be posted in the Fidonet BNU support echo by the author. This saved text file is the last official posting of this FAQ by David Nugent, BNU's author.

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite web , last1=Nugent , first1=David , title=BNU FAQ , url=http://www.wpusa.dynip.com/files2/FOSSIL/BNUFAQ.TXT , publisher=David Nugent via BNU support echo on Fidonet , date=April 16, 1993 , access-date=December 9, 2006 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929203726/http://www.wpusa.dynip.com/files2/FOSSIL/BNUFAQ.TXT , archive-date=September 29, 2007 , url-status=dead {{cite web , last1=Moore , first1=Rick , title=Fundamentals of FOSSIL implementation and use , url=http://ftsc.org/docs/fsc-0015.001 , publisher=Fidonet Technical Standards Committee , date=February 11, 1988 Device drivers FOSSIL