Re: what about 48 bits?

[Steven Bellovin <smb () cs columbia edu>]

On Apr 5, 2010, at 1:43 52PM, Valdis.Kletnieks () vt edu wrote:

> On Mon, 05 Apr 2010 13:29:20 EDT, Jay Nakamura said:
> > > > I would have attributed the success of Ethernet to price!
> > > You've got the causality wrong -- it wasn't cheap, way back when.
> >
> > I remember back in '93~94ish (I think) you could get a off brand 10BT
> > card for less than $100, as oppose to Token Ring which was $300~400.
> > I can't remember anything else that was cheaper back then.  If you go
> > back before that, I don't know.
>
> Steve is talking mid-80s pricing, not mid-90s.  By '93 or so, the fact
> that Ethernet was becoming ubiquitous had already forced the price down.

Yup.  10 years earlier, a 3Com Ethernet card for a Vax cost about $1500, if memory serves.

                --Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb