Netroom (originally styled NETROOM) is a

DOS DOS (, ) is a family of disk-based operating systems for IBM PC compatible computers. The DOS family primarily consists of IBM PC DOS and a rebranded version, Microsoft's MS-DOS, both of which were introduced in 1981. Later compatible syste ...

memory manager produced by Helix Software Company in the 1990s. Introduced in August 1990, NETROOM was originally titled "LAN Memory Manager." Version 1.0 of NETROOM was a re-packaged version of Helix's HeadRoom with the HeadRoom Network Extensions, bundled together and targeted to network users. NETROOM loaded network drivers into a

virtual machine In computing, a virtual machine (VM) is the virtualization or emulator, emulation of a computer system. Virtual machines are based on computer architectures and provide the functionality of a physical computer. Their implementations may involve ...

created using an

expanded memory In DOS memory management, expanded memory is a system of bank switching that provided additional memory to DOS programs beyond the limit of conventional memory (640 KiB). ''Expanded memory'' is an umbrella term for several incompatible tech ...

page frame. NETROOM allowed this virtual machine to run as a multitasked

background process A background process is a computer process that runs ''behind the scenes'' (i.e., in the background) and without user intervention. Typical tasks for these processes include logging, system monitoring, scheduling, and user notification. On a Wind ...

. NETROOM included support for

Novell Novell, Inc. () was an American software and services company headquartered in Provo, Utah, that existed from 1980 until 2014. Its most significant product was the multi-platform network operating system known as NetWare. Novell technolog ...

NetWare NetWare is a discontinued computer network operating system developed by Novell, Inc. It initially used cooperative multitasking to run various services on a personal computer, using the IPX network protocol. The final update release was ver ...

, Banyan VINES, and

LAN Manager LAN Manager is a discontinued network operating system (NOS) available from multiple vendors and developed by Microsoft in cooperation with 3Com Corporation. It was designed to succeed 3Com's 3+Share network server software which ran atop a h ...

networks. NETROOM was originally available only in multi-user packs starting with a four user license. Helix introduced version 1.10 of NETROOM, in January 1991, with a single-user license. This version included support for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

3.0, and added an integrated 286 and 386

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

. The NETROOM 286/386 memory manager provided access to

and extended memory on

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

80386 The Intel 386, originally released as the 80386 and later renamed i386, is the third-generation x86 architecture microprocessor from Intel. It was the first 32-bit processor in the line, making it a significant evolution in the x86 architect ...

or newer systems as well as on

Intel 80286 The Intel 80286 (also marketed as the iAPX 286 and often called Intel 286) is a 16-bit microprocessor that was introduced on February 1, 1982. It was the first 8086-based CPU with separate, non- multiplexed address and data buses and also the f ...

systems based on the

Chips and Technologies Chips and Technologies, Inc. (C&T), was an early fabless semiconductor company founded in Milpitas, California, in December 1984 by Gordon A. Campbell and Dado Banatao. Its first product, announced September 1985, was a four chip Enhanced Graph ...

NEAT chipset. In June 1991, NETROOM v2.0 added

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 op ...

5 compatibility and an automatic setup and configuration tool named "Customize." NETROOM 2.0 continued to focus on virtual machine task-switching as its primary memory management technology. In January 1992, NETROOM v2.1 added a "Quantum" memory management feature which could relocate the

system A system is a group of interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its open system (systems theory), environment, is described by its boundaries, str ...

and video BIOS into the

High Memory Area In DOS memory management, the high memory area (HMA) is the RAM area consisting of the first 65520 bytes above the one megabyte in an IBM AT or compatible computer. In real mode, the segmentation architecture of the Intel 8086 and subseque ...

. In 1992 Helix licensed some of the technology from NETROOM 2.1 to

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

. This technology was incorporated into the

EMM386 EMM386 is the expanded memory manager of Microsoft's MS-DOS, IBM's PC DOS, Digital Research's DR-DOS, and Datalight's ROM-DOS which is used to create expanded memory using extended memory on Intel 80386 CPUs. There also is an EMM386.EXE avail ...

and MEMMAKER programs in MS-DOS 6, which was released in March 1993. Concurrently with the release of MS-DOS 6, Helix released NETROOM v3.0 which included the Helix Cloaking technology. NETROOM 3 contained a variety of cloaked utilities, including

and video BIOS licensed from

Award Software Award Software International Inc. was a BIOS manufacturer founded in 1983 by Rene Vishney and Bob Stillman in San Jose, California. In 1984, the company moved its international headquarters to Los Gatos, California, United States. History In 1 ...

, an animated screen saver, a disk cache, and a

RAM drive A RAM drive (also called a RAM disk) is a block of random-access memory (primary storage or volatile memory) that a computer's software is treating as if the memory were a disk drive (secondary storage). RAM drives provide high-performance tempo ...

. The final version of NETROOM, v3.04, was released in late 1994 and included compatibility with

Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft and the first of its Windows 9x family of operating systems, released to manufacturing on July 14, 1995, and generally to retail on August 24, 1995. Windows 95 merged ...

. The

Cloaking Cloaking is a search engine optimization (SEO) technique in which the content presented to the search engine spider is different from that presented to the user's browser. This is done by delivering content based on the IP addresses or the ...

driver continued as the basis for the Multimedia Cloaking and Multimedia Stacker products released in 1994 and 1995.

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite journal, title=Go Where No Network Has Gone Before , journal=PC Magazine, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tqJbouvq9SkC&q=helix%20netroom&pg=PT77, page=65, accessdate=30 April 2015, date=29 Sep 1990 {{cite journal, title=NETROOM Adds Memory Manager, Windows Compatibility , journal=InfoWorld, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fVAEAAAAMBAJ&q=helix%20netroom&pg=PA33, page=33, accessdate=30 April 2015, date=21 Jan 1991 {{cite journal, title=LAN Memory Management , journal=PC Magazine, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X_tru4xwJ_sC&q=helix%20netroom&pg=PT239, first=Frank, last=Derfler, page=226, accessdate=30 April 2015, date=29 Jan 1991 {{cite journal, title=MicroBits , journal=Computerworld, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2c1yzy6rYhwC&q=helix%20netroom&pg=PA41, page=41, accessdate=1 May 2015, date=6 May 1991 {{cite journal, title=Helix brings out memory aid , journal=Computerworld, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aZmDhPVONZkC&q=helix%20netroom&pg=PA104, page=104, accessdate=1 May 2015, date=8 Jul 1991 {{cite journal, title=Only NETROOM , journal=PC Magazine, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rNcvvlvuwlIC&q=helix%20netroom%20quantum&pg=PT48, page=47, accessdate=30 April 2015, date=14 Jan 1992 {{cite journal, title=Memory Management , journal=PC Magazine, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FeIuiOQN-nEC&q=helix%20netroom%20quantum&pg=PT261, first=Barry, last=Simon, page=248, accessdate=30 April 2015, date=11 Feb 1992 {{cite book, title=The Ultimate Utility Guide, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NGNpFuAXu70C&q=microsoft%20helix%20license%20dos%206&pg=PA172 , first=Larry, last=Seltzer , page=172, accessdate=1 May 2015, date=14 May 1996 {{cite book, title=Best Utilities, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XNt4ttAFAiwC&q=pc%20magazine%20netroom%20helix&pg=PA134, first=Rick, last=Ayre , accessdate=1 May 2015, date=14 September 1993, page=134 {{cite book, title=Managing Memory , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SZtn0ArSohkC&q=helix%20netroom&pg=PA30, first=Robin, last=Raskin , accessdate=1 May 2015, date=30 March 1993, page=30 Memory management software