IP: New Versions of Ethernet Promise Swift Improvements in Communications

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> From: "the terminal of Geoff Goodfellow" <geoff () iconia com>
> To: "Dave E-mail Pamphleteer Farber" <farber () cis upenn edu>
> Subject: New Versions of Ethernet Promise Swift Improvements in Communications
> Date: Sun, 4 Jun 2000 22:25:50 -0700
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>
> http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/06/biztech/articles/05net.html
>
> New Versions of Ethernet Promise Swift Improvements in Communications
>
> By JOHN MARKOFF
> The New York Times
>
> PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Several years ago, with tongue only partially planted in
> cheek, Intel's chairman, Andrew Grove, made an observation: Unlike the chip
> industry, where processing speeds double every 18 months or so, the moribund
> telecommunications world seemed to double its speed only about once a century.
>
> But here on a test bench at Agilent Technologies is clear evidence that may
> give lie to Grove's Law -- evidence that the nation's communications networks
> could be poised for sweeping improvements in speed and efficiency that could
> rival the breakneck pace of breakthroughs in the chip industry.
>
> Using inexpensive high-speed semiconductor components, lasers and mirrors, a
> small group of Agilent researchers have fashioned a palm-size device 
> capable of
> shuttling data at 10 billion bits -- or 10 gigabits -- a second.
>
> <snip>
>
> But this is not your father's Ethernet; it is Ethernet 3,000 thousand times as
> fast as the original versions. At the rate the technology is evolving, some
> analysts expect office desktop computers to soon have access to data networks
> with speed and power formerly available only in the nation's best research
> laboratories -- but at prices no higher than today's standard business-office
> Internet connections.
>
> <snip>
>
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> http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/01/biztech/articles/17drop.html