AppleTalk is a set of proprietary networking protocols that Apple computers developed for their computer systems. AppleTalk was included in the original Macintosh released in 1984. It became unsupported with the release of Mac OS X v10.6 in 2009 and was dropped in favor of TCP/IP networking, allowing Apple computers to communicate with other computers using the same standard.
The design of AppleTalk followed the OSI Model of protocol layering with two protocols aimed at making the system completely self-configuring:
AppleTalk was revolutionary and easy to configure in its day. However, with the rise of Internet-based protocols and their standardization, the need for a proprietary system quickly declined. If Apple had not conformed to other standards, they were in danger of losing the competition. Hence, they finally dropped AppleTalk in favor of TCP/IP. Apple supported AppleTalk for older devices for a while. However, the last Mac OS to support AppleTalk was OS X v10.5.
AppleTalk used a 4-byte address system and used completely self-configuring protocols. The address resolution protocol allowed hosts to generate their own address automatically. The name binding protocol allowed the system to dynamically map the network address to user-readable names of terminals.
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