Ethernet Patent
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Inventors of the
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| By Mary
Bellis
I came to work one day at
MIT and the computer had been stolen, so I called DEC to break
the news to them that this $30,000 computer that they'd lent
me was gone. They thought this was the greatest thing that
ever happened, because it turns out that I had in my
possession the first computer small enough to be stolen! -
Robert Metcalfe on the trials and tribulations of inventing
the Ethernet.
The ethernet is a system
for connecting computers within a building using hardware
running from machine to machine. It differs from the Internet,
which connects remotely located computers by telephone line,
software protocol and some hardware. Ethernet uses some
software (borrowed from Internet
Protocol), but the connecting hardware was the basis of
the patent (#4,063,220) involving newly designed chips and
wiring. The patent* describes ethernet as a "multipoint data
communication system with collision
detection".
Robert Metcalfe was a
member of the research staff for Xerox,
at their Palo
Alto Research Center (PARC) where some of the first
personal computers were being made. Metcalfe was asked to
build a networking system for PARC's computers. Xerox's
motivation for the computer network was that they were also
building the world's first laser printer and wanted all of the
PARC's computers to be able to print with this
printer.
Robert Metcalfe had two
challenges: the network had to be fast enough to drive the
very fast new laser printer; and it had to connect hundreds of
computers within the same building. Never before had hundreds
of computers been in the same building -- at that time no one
had more than one, two or maybe three computers in operation
on any one premise.
The press has often stated
that ethernet was invented on May 22, 1973, when Robert
Metcalfe wrote a memo to his bosses stating the possibilities
of ethernet's potential, but Metcalfe claims ethernet was
actually invented very gradually over a period of several
years. In 1976, Robert Metcalfe and David Boggs (Metcalfe's
assistant) published a paper titled, "Ethernet: Distributed
Packet-Switching For Local Computer Networks."
Robert Metcalfe left Xerox
in 1979 to promote the use of personal computers and local
area networks (LANs). He successfully convinced Digital
Equipment, Intel, and Xerox Corporations to work together to
promote ethernet as a standard. Now an international computer
industry standard, ethernet is the most widely installed LAN
protocol.
*
U.S. Patent #4,063,220 - Ethernet
Patent Multipoint data communication system with collision
detection.
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The
first home computers - Scelbi, Mark-8 Altair and IBM
5100
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