Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Ethernet Turns 40

Posted by timothy on from the it's-thinking-about-that-optical-sportscar dept.

alancronin writes "Four decades ago the Ethernet protocol made its debut as a way to connect machines in close proximity, today it is the networking layer two protocol of choice for local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs) and everything in between. For many people Ethernet is merely the RJ45 jack on the back of a laptop, but its relative ubiquity and simplicity belie what Ethernet has done for the networking industry and in turn for consumers and enterprises. Ethernet has in the space of 40 years gone from a technology that many in the industry viewed as something not fit for high bandwidth, dependable communications to the default data link protocol."

4 of 159 comments (clear)

  1. Invented by this guy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Q&A with the inventor: http://www.reddit.com/r/tabled/comments/1erztm/table_iama_youre_probably_connecting_to_reddit/

  2. Ethernet is really only 33 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The spec might be 40, but 40 years ago was 1973. You could not buy anything Ethernet that early. None of it was actually available for sale until the early 1980s. I was there; I was involved in early implementations (anyone remember "thick wire" Ethernet, or the early DEC routers and bridges? Kinks and reflections?).

    That was actually one of the genius bits of Ethernet. It was designed (DEC, Xerox, and Intel) to do what needed to be done, not what could be done with the available tech. It took a while for the state-of-the-art tech to catch up with the spec. Which is why you couldn't buy any Ethernet equipment until around 1980.

    I'm just sayin', that for the people who were there, actually working in the field (not in a Xerox research lab), Ethernet is only around 33 years old. And it sure as hell didn't start out with RJ45 connectors!

  3. Re:LANPARTY! by OhSoLaMeow · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Break out the BNCs and coax.

    BNC? Break out the AUIs!
    10base5 was quite a bit more challenging to install, given that each cable tap had to be at a precise location and required special tools to drill the cable.
    Now get off of my LAN!

    --
    They can take my LifeAlert pendant when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.
  4. Re:Token ring ... by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 3, Interesting

    >Cell, not packet.

    Just because the same idiots who thought 53 was a sane number of bytes to make packet also thought they had the right to just randomly rename things that standard network terminology calls packets or PDUs, and calls them cells instead.

    Let it be known, that when I'm master of the universe, I will not be tolerant of their mistakes.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.