What Ethernet Is and What Fast Ethernet Is...
“A
type of local area network that can transmit data at a rate of about 10
megabits per second, or 100 Mbps for Fast Ethernet.” Ethernet and Fast
Ethernet. (Mitch Gitman, “Racing to the Internet - U S West's DSL is swift, but not available to all,” The Arizona Daily Star, March 6, 1998 p. 8D)
Ethernet = 10 megabits per second (Mbps) data transmission speed.
Fast Ethernet = 100 megabits per second (Mbps) data transmission speed.
Ethernet Local Area Network (LAN) Technology
“Ethernet - The most popular local area network technology in use
today [1996], in which users share access on a first-come, first-served basis.
A drawback: The more users on this kind of network, the slower it goes,
as users compete for network capacity.” (Howard Bryant, Mercury News
Staff Writer, “How Networking Works Getting Data from Place to Place is
Main Goal of Industry - Glossary,” San Jose Mercury News, San Jose, California, April 30, 1996, p. 12E) Click here to find and compare the lowest prices
in your area code for Fast Ethernet.
Ethernet moves data at 10 megabits a second
“Ethernet, invented at Xerox in 1973 but commercialized by scores of companies since, was adequate as long as networks were used primarily to share files and printing services. But Ethernet, with an estimated 50 million users worldwide, is straining under today's demands of large graphics and multimedia files, and so-called client/server applications, which split tasks among large and small computers scattered about the network.
Ethernet moves data at 10 megabits a second, and the most common variant, an industry standard called 10Base-T, does so using normal twisted-pair telephone wire.” How does Fast Ethernet work? (Lawrence M. Fisher, New York Times Service, “Network battle centers on standards,” Austin American-Statesman, June 13, 1994, p. C1) Who invented Ethernet?
"Ethernet is right up there with magnetic resonance imaging, the LP record, air bags, and soft contact lenses. So says the National Inventors Hall of Fame, which included Bob Metcalfe, inventor of the ubiquitous LAN technology, in its latest round of inductees. Metcalfe, along with David Boggs, created Ethernet technology while the two were researchers Xerox PARC in 1973. Originally, the technology transmitted data at 3Mbps over thick coaxial cable. Today Ethernet travels as fast as 10Gbps, and runs over mostly twisted pair copper and fiber optic cabling.
Ethernet became an IEEE standard, known as 802.3, in 1983. Metcalfe took his invention to the market in 1979 when he founded networking company 3Com. He retired from 3Com in 1990 and is currently a partner at venture capital firm Polaris Venture Partners. Metcalfe is also known for formulating "Metcalfe's Law," which says that the value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of users of the system." What is fast ethernet? (Phil Hochmuth, “Ethernet inventor makes the Inventors Hall of Fame — Bob Metcalfe's LAN technology ranks up there with the air bag, LP record, weed killer,” Network World, February 8, 2007) Fast Ethernet provides speeds of 100 megabits per second
“Fast
Ethernet is an upgrade of Ethernet that provides 100Mbps transmission
speeds. The most popular implementation is 100BASE-TX, which
interconnects PCs with Fast Ethernet NICs to a Fast Ethernet repeater
or switch using Category 5 UTP copper cable. Fast Ethernet network
interface cards have become a true commodity item, with prices for
high-quality boards recently reaching as low as $60 per board. 16-port
Fast Ethernet repeater hubs such as the one shown below have been seen
in catalogs for about $750.
At these prices, it makes sense
to use a full-duplex Fast Ethernet switch, such as the $2500 24-port
Bay Networks B350T, instead of a plain Fast Ethernet repeater to
connect systems in a cluster.
Using the full-duplex switch
avoids collisions, which can degrade performance under heavy loads. A
Fast Ethernet repeater that is used for one of our clusters is shown
below.” (G. Helmer, “Technology Descriptions” SCL Cluster Cookbook –
Interconnect, Scalable Computing Laboratory – SCL Ames Laboratory, Iowa
State University, U.S. Department of Energy, Ames, Iowa, last updated
as of August 18, 1998, retrieved August 16, 2009) | Ethernet - How Fast? | How fast is Ethernet?
“Ethernet is a networking system that allows data to pass at speeds of up to 10 megabits a second. Compared with a dial-up modem, which has a maximum speed of 56,000 bits a second, that's pretty darned fast. But for some networking applications, it's not enough. That's why Fast Ethernet was developed. It can handle data at speeds of up to 100 mbps. In most home uses, you probably can get by with standard Ethernet, although if you think you might be sharing video across your home network, Fast Ethernet is a better choice. Fortunately, there are plenty of affordable network cards out there that can work at either speed. That's what the 10/100 means - the card or networking device is dual-speed, and can work at either 10 or 100 mbps.”
(Houston
Chronicle Staff, “Fast Ethernet is a good idea if you want video on network,” Houston
Chronicle, June 9, 2000, p. 4)
Fast Ethernet History
On Friday, April 29, 1994, Intel Corp. and SynOptics Communications Inc., announced the first Fast Ethernet products produced from their 4-month-old strategic alliance. The alliance was struck to accelerate the development of faster computer networking technology.
Called “Fast Ethernet”, the new interface cards and switching hubs were designed to accelerate the flow of data used by networks for multimedia and extended database applications.
The Intel/SynOptics Fast Ethernet technologies were developed to surmount ‘data bottleneck” problems arising from the standard Ethernet technology used by most corporate computer networks which had a limited capacity of only 10 megabits per second (10 Mbps).
Data bottlenecks occurred when users attempted to use video conferencing and other multimedia applications that combined video, sound and text.
The Intel EtherExpress “Fast Ethernet” adapter which could operate at either 10 Mbps or 100 Mbps was designed to sense the speed of the network's hub computer and automatically adjust. The SynOptics' LattisSwitch system was designed to provide 10 Mbps and 100 Mbps network connections.
The Fast Ethernet EtherExpress adapter and LattisSwitch systems were unveiled on May 2, 1994 at the NetWorld-InterOp trade show in Las Vegas.
(Sources: Intel and SynOptics press releases, “Intel, SynOptics announce faster computer networking products,” Bloomberg Business News, Austin American-Statesman, Austin, Texas, Saturday, April 30, 1994) Fast Ethernet and Ethernet Switching Products
“Grand Junction Networks Inc., which is based in Fremont and has 85
employees and about $30 million in annual revenues, makes Fast Ethernet
and Ethernet desktop switching products. The products allow data to be
passed around on a network of personal computers. Grand Junction will
become a division of [Cisco Systems Inc.], which is based in San Jose.
. . Cisco will use Grand Junction's technology to provide equipment and
software that will allow home offices and small businesses to access
other remote offices as well as the global communications network known
as the Internet. . . Fast Ethernet allows PC users to move and gather
information on a computer network faster and more cheaply. Instead of
using a network line that is shared by others in the group, Grand
Junction's products give users the equivalent of a ''private'' line, a
Cisco executive said.” (Dean Takahashi, Mercury News Staff Writer, “Cisco Extends Its Reach Purchase: Grand Junction Acquired For $348 Million,” San Jose Mercury News, San Jose, California, September 28, 1995, p. 1C)
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