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Ask Slashdot: Is It Time To Shrink the Ethernet Connector?
New submitter jimwelch writes: HDMI has shrunk to mini, then micro. USB has shrunk to mini, then micro. The wired Ethernet connector has not changed since 1988! On the Raspberry PI, it is the largest of the standardized connectors. Is it time to come up with a new version? What if, anything, would you like to see replace that suddenly clunky RJ-45 port? I rather like that (in theory) RJ-45 cables can't be easily dislodged, but at the same time dislike that its locking mechanism can be awfully fragile. And for that matter, I'm glad that on most of my computers so far there's been full-sized USB ports as well as full-size ethernet jacks.
it has been replaced in consumer equipment by the (very small) WiFi connector
There would be no need to re-wire data centers. I suspect the changes would mostly be to thin laptops, and to cable modems and home routers. Servers would probably maintain full size connectors.
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Whoever wrote this article obviously didn't do any research first.
There is already a new standard for physical ethernet cabling, calling RJ.5 (that is, ar-jay-point-five): http://www.alliedtelesis.com/videos/RJpointfive
"Allied Telesis is one of the first networking vendors to embrace the new RJ point five Ethernet connectivity standard. Built to replace the RJ-45 standard copper Ethernet connector, the new RJ point five connectors are half the size, so you save valuable space and double your port density."
They're not popular in the marketplace because the cables are uncommon and therefore expensive, and similarly the physical jacks are uncommon and therefore expensive.
These things already exist and are already awesome. They're a half-sized RJ-45 with contacts on both sides that takes up exactly half the PCB space of an RJ-45 socket.
Unfortunately the connectors and sockets are still shockingly expensive.
-puddingpimp
A bunch of datacenters are already switching to RJ point 5, because it halves the amount of space taken up by top-of-rack switches and patch panels. There's no need to rewire anything, as they both terminate to the same Cat6 cable, and patch cables are available for RJ.5 to RJ-45.
See here.
I'm really curious as to what sites actually have so much shit in their racks that they need to reclaim 1U by replacing the 2U 96 port ToR switch with a 1U 96 port ToR switch. I guess it might be micro, sub 1U servers, but then I wonder why they don't use backplane ethernet in these racks. Anyway someone clearly thought there was a need, and now there is RJ.5; Also microSFP, apparently, because 96 ports of 10G in 2U is not enough these days... I'm amazed they can make the thermals work to get 96x10G ports into a 1U switch or line card.
-puddingpimp
Fiber-based Ethernet has already different kind of connectors.
bash$
Have a look at some of the shenanigans NIC makers had to do with PCMCIA cards: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Because if audio signals get crossed, the worst that happens is an annoying buzz. When you insert a barrel jack, it connects to each conductor in turn until it's seated - bad news for things like data transfer, where crossed wires have large consequences.
All ethernet devices of the last 10+ years can autonegotiate between straight and cross-over wire configuration. So with wires on the connector organized as tx+ tx- rx- rx+ (4-wire example), a flippable connector would not require any changes in the electronics. And it would get rid of the impedance-killing central pair split in today's standard connector.
Of course, the question is whether you could make a flippable connector that's field-crimpable with simple tools.
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Someone clearly has never come in contact with a business class laptop. Your complaints about laptops are so 2004. And giving your employees laptops means making them work from home for free! Only the most important employees at my last company were issued both desktops and laptops, everyone else just got a laptop and a docking station at work.
Business class laptops are easy to repair and for the most part upgrade hard drives, ram, and in most cases, even the display (higher res). Not to mention "drop it on the concrete out of your car" reliable. Dell, HP, Lenovo (formerly IBM) have been doing this for years and years and years.
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I was not saying that laptops are difficult to repair or upgrade, though the consumer class laptops are (and business class laptops are more expensive). I just noticed that people usually keep a desktop for a long time before buying a new one (with repairs/upgrades or without), while a laptop is more easily damaged (by spilling liquid on its keyboard or something) and people buy new laptops slightly more often than desktops. OTOH, people replace phones/tablets with newer models even more often.
Which means, that the desktop sales are lower than phone sales, that makes some people say that "the desktop is dying, phones are taking over", even though pretty much everybody has a desktop or at least a laptop at home.
As for businesses, some companies that I know tend to buy desktops unless the employee needs to carry the computer with him outside of the office. The reason is that a desktop is cheaper, you can reuse an old monitor etc. Some other companies I know use 10 year old desktops ("If it was good enough when I bought it new, it's good enough now").