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Where's Our Terabit Ethernet?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the i-already-made-a-bandwidth-pr0n-joke-today dept.

carusoj writes "Five years ago, we were talking about using Terabit Ethernet in 2008. Those plans have been pushed back a bit, but Ethernet inventor Bob Metcalfe this week is starting to throw around a new date for Terabit Ethernet: 2015. He's also suggesting that this be done in a non-standard way, at least at first, saying it's an opportunity to "break loose from the stranglehold of standards and move into some fun new technologies.""

4 of 218 comments (clear)

  1. but but but by grasshoppa · · Score: 3, Informative

    we LOVE our standards. Without standards, where would we be?

    K, just RTFA, and let me save the rest of you folks the suspense: There isn't one. It's a blurb about breaking standards and terabit ethernet. The slashdot summary just about nailed it.

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    1. Re:but but but by milsoRgen · · Score: 3, Informative

      Metcalfe says that the current approach being taken in the standards bodies won't get us to terabit rates. So, without going into too much detail, he said he expects a technology revolution, during which proprietary and innovative approaches to Terabit Ethernet will rule, at least at first. He said he sees it as an opportunity to "break loose from the stranglehold of standards and move into some fun new technologies." Ahhh, the struggle to stay relevant I suppose. Especially considering this guy has one awards from IEEE, a standards body. It almost feels he has an axe to grind from that short statement, at least in regards to the process perhaps. But then again he is a venture capitalist, perhaps he is laying down some good press for some startups he might have dumped some cash into? Also he has had some incorrect predictions before, my favorite being Windows 2000 would crush Linux.
      --
      I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask where they're goin' and hook up with 'em later.
  2. Who needs it? by mollymoo · · Score: 5, Informative

    One terrabit per second is roughly:

    6 x as fast as 32-bit 2.8GHz HyperTransport
    16 x as fast as x16 PCIe 2.0
    60 x as fast as 20GFC fibre channel
    400 x as fast as SATA-300
    700 uncompressed 1080p HDTV streams (24bpp, 30fps)
    15 million telephone calls

    Other than the LHC, who the hells needs that kind of bandwidth?

    --
    Chernobyl 'not a wildlife haven' - BBC News
  3. Re:I will Settle For 1Mbps by ivan256 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Spend 5 minutes troubleshooting.

    Consumer grade copper gigabit in crappy low-end PCs (made in the last 4 years) should be able to give you at least 300mbit of transferred data over TCP given 10 minutes of tuning, and using the correct cables.

    Don't use a USB NIC. Don't transfer your data to/from a 4000rpm laptop hard drive... Etc..

    You're not going to get 1Gbps though, 'cause your hard drive probably can't go that fast. The average low-end desktop drive isn't going to give you more than 30MB/sec. Depending on your system, the bus you have the NIC plugged into can't do 1000mbps. Your network can handle the advertised speed just fine though. If you've got high end gear (motherboard, disk array) you can peg a gigabit ethernet link in a point to point transfer... Right now it's not the ethernet holding consumer grade equipment back.