Re: what about 48 bits?

[Roland Perry <lists () internetpolicyagency com>]

In article <4BBBF070.6000403 () sprunk org>, Stephen Sprunk 
<stephen () sprunk org> writes
> Ah, but what _caused_ Ethernet to become ubiquitous, given the price was
> initially comparable?

For me, as an SME user, I started using Ethernet when Dlink introduced 
an ISA card [DE205] which had a 4-port hub built in (actually 5-port if 
you counted the internal one), at not a great deal more than a normal 
10Base-T card.  I think it was about $250, when a typical desktop PC was 
$2500.

So all I needed to build my network was one of those, some cable, and 
add-in Ethernet cards for each other PC I wanted to bring into the LAN. 
As icing on the cake, they also had a Centronics-port dongle to hook up 
almost all laptops very easily, and in an emergency you could even use 
it on a desktop.

Price was a major feature, but interoperability and backwards 
compatibility were the tipping points.
--
Roland Perry