4 ms·

Ethernet Turns 40

69 points by eguizzo 13y ago

rzendacott 13y ago
Robert Metcalfe recently did a reddit AMA: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1erq51/youre_probably_connecting_to_reddit_through_a/ http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1erq51/youre_probably_...
derefr 13y ago
What a wonderful thing to read just as I'm starting work for the day; put me right into a productive mood (washing all of the sociopolitical-hogwash from the rest of the front page right out of my head in the process.)
chebucto 13y ago
FTFA: "“In 1973, the Internet [which at that time was basically the ARPANET] on a good day ran at 50 kb/s,” Metcalfe reflected in his oral history. “Ethernet ran at 2.94 megabits per second.” Over the years, people urged Metcalfe to round the number up to 3. He always resisted, as a matter of emphasis: If one rounds 2.94 Mb to 3 Mb, the rounding error is more than 50 kb/s. “Ethernet’s round-off error was bigger than Internet,” said Metcafe. “That’s how fast Ethernet was running.”"
jotm 13y ago
Ethernet is really great, I can't wait for affordable 10Gbps cards - right now the most you can get is 2Gbps (which is still enough to write/read seamlessly to even the fastest hard drives with the right setup).
- wmf 13y ago
  10G NICs have been around $400 for years; I've given up hope on them ever getting cheaper.
  - voltagex_ 13y ago
    I think most research for the last ~10 years has gone into wireless tech. Maybe that's why the price hasn't changed?
  - Wingman4l7 13y ago
    Reminds me of RAM-disk expansion cards; since they're such a specialty item, they are only ever made by a few manufacturers who will always charge an arm and a leg.
  - jotm 13y ago
    I think it's because people didn't really need 10Gb until now. With widespread use of NAS and SSDs in homes and offices, hopefully these adapters will become cheaper.
jimktrains2 13y ago
While this is only tangentially related: I wish there was an easy way to use 10base5 Ethernet from a microcontroller.
drcube 13y ago
"By using the word ether in its name, the PARC people alluded to the possibility that Ethernet could be based on coaxial, twisted-pair or optical fiber wiring and, eventually, on Wi-Fi." Still waiting on that last one. ;) Hooray for 802.11.
Decade 13y ago
The introduction to the article is a bit overblown. We were connecting computers, sharing printers and files and playing multiplayer games, long before we used Ethernet. Now we all use Ethernet, and Ethernet has been around so long that devices are available at practically every price point. But for a long time, Ethernet was not the only choice. As a Mac user, I was using AppleTalk (later called LocalTalk) until the late 90's. The controllers were built into every Mac, and the PhoneNet transceivers and wiring were extremely cheap. We just used plain, common, thin telephone wiring, daisy-chained from computer to computer. No need for hubs or carefully categorized cabling. The devices configured their own addresses, so we only had to give them names that meant something to humans, and not memorize all these 192.168 numbers. LocalTalk was slow (230kbps), and the lack of DMA on most of the controllers really sucked, but it was a nice and easy way to start a network.
- voltagex_ 13y ago
  How were the name lookups done? It seems we still can't get this right in 2013 (mDNS & NMB)
  - silvestrov 13y ago
    The Mac broadcasted a packet and collected all the response packets from other Macs which responded to the broadcast packet. This gave AppleTalk a reputation for being chatty as all lookups resulted in a broadcast. Documentation: http://developer.apple.com/legacy/library/documentation/mac/pdf/Networking/NBP.pdf http://developer.apple.com/legacy/library/documentation/mac/...
ewest 13y ago
I think we're a little late to the party - this story is from July 15 and the facebook page for this dates back to May 15.
rdudekul 13y ago
Interview with Bob Metcalfe, worth watching (11 mins.): http://standards.ieee.org/events/ethernet/index.html http://standards.ieee.org/events/ethernet/index.html
greenlakejake 13y ago
Ethernet arose from Aloha Net http://www.isa.org/InTechTemplate.cfm?Section=InTech&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=55888 http://www.isa.org/InTechTemplate.cfm?Section=InTech&templat... From the article: During the 1970s, a Harvard graduate student named Robert Metcalfe read a paper about something called Aloha Net. It was a radio system used in the Hawaiian Islands to send small messages, also called data packets, between islands. ... The packet communications network he designed became the worldwide standard we know today as Ethernet.

69 points by eguizzo 13y ago

Robert Metcalfe recently did a reddit AMA: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1erq51/youre_probably_connecting_to_reddit_through_a/ http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1erq51/youre_probably_...

derefr 13y ago

What a wonderful thing to read just as I'm starting work for the day; put me right into a productive mood (washing all of the sociopolitical-hogwash from the rest of the front page right out of my head in the process.)

chebucto 13y ago

FTFA: "“In 1973, the Internet [which at that time was basically the ARPANET] on a good day ran at 50 kb/s,” Metcalfe reflected in his oral history. “Ethernet ran at 2.94 megabits per second.” Over the years, people urged Metcalfe to round the number up to 3. He always resisted, as a matter of emphasis: If one rounds 2.94 Mb to 3 Mb, the rounding error is more than 50 kb/s. “Ethernet’s round-off error was bigger than Internet,” said Metcafe. “That’s how fast Ethernet was running.”"

jotm 13y ago

Ethernet is really great, I can't wait for affordable 10Gbps cards - right now the most you can get is 2Gbps (which is still enough to write/read seamlessly to even the fastest hard drives with the right setup).

wmf 13y ago
10G NICs have been around $400 for years; I've given up hope on them ever getting cheaper.
- voltagex_ 13y ago
  I think most research for the last ~10 years has gone into wireless tech. Maybe that's why the price hasn't changed?
- Wingman4l7 13y ago
  Reminds me of RAM-disk expansion cards; since they're such a specialty item, they are only ever made by a few manufacturers who will always charge an arm and a leg.
- jotm 13y ago
  I think it's because people didn't really need 10Gb until now. With widespread use of NAS and SSDs in homes and offices, hopefully these adapters will become cheaper.

jimktrains2 13y ago

While this is only tangentially related: I wish there was an easy way to use 10base5 Ethernet from a microcontroller.

drcube 13y ago

"By using the word ether in its name, the PARC people alluded to the possibility that Ethernet could be based on coaxial, twisted-pair or optical fiber wiring and, eventually, on Wi-Fi." Still waiting on that last one. ;) Hooray for 802.11.

Decade 13y ago

The introduction to the article is a bit overblown. We were connecting computers, sharing printers and files and playing multiplayer games, long before we used Ethernet. Now we all use Ethernet, and Ethernet has been around so long that devices are available at practically every price point. But for a long time, Ethernet was not the only choice. As a Mac user, I was using AppleTalk (later called LocalTalk) until the late 90's. The controllers were built into every Mac, and the PhoneNet transceivers and wiring were extremely cheap. We just used plain, common, thin telephone wiring, daisy-chained from computer to computer. No need for hubs or carefully categorized cabling. The devices configured their own addresses, so we only had to give them names that meant something to humans, and not memorize all these 192.168 numbers. LocalTalk was slow (230kbps), and the lack of DMA on most of the controllers really sucked, but it was a nice and easy way to start a network.

voltagex_ 13y ago
How were the name lookups done? It seems we still can't get this right in 2013 (mDNS & NMB)
- silvestrov 13y ago
  The Mac broadcasted a packet and collected all the response packets from other Macs which responded to the broadcast packet. This gave AppleTalk a reputation for being chatty as all lookups resulted in a broadcast. Documentation: http://developer.apple.com/legacy/library/documentation/mac/pdf/Networking/NBP.pdf http://developer.apple.com/legacy/library/documentation/mac/...

ewest 13y ago

I think we're a little late to the party - this story is from July 15 and the facebook page for this dates back to May 15.

rdudekul 13y ago

Interview with Bob Metcalfe, worth watching (11 mins.): http://standards.ieee.org/events/ethernet/index.html http://standards.ieee.org/events/ethernet/index.html

greenlakejake 13y ago

Ethernet arose from Aloha Net http://www.isa.org/InTechTemplate.cfm?Section=InTech&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=55888 http://www.isa.org/InTechTemplate.cfm?Section=InTech&templat... From the article: During the 1970s, a Harvard graduate student named Robert Metcalfe read a paper about something called Aloha Net. It was a radio system used in the Hawaiian Islands to send small messages, also called data packets, between islands. ... The packet communications network he designed became the worldwide standard we know today as Ethernet.