MIT Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
Gigabit Ethernet, ATM and the Death of Phone Companies
David Cheriton
Department of Computer Science, Stanford University
Thursday, May 8, 1997
3:30 PM (3:15 refreshments)
Edgerton Hall, Room 34-101
LCS Distinguished Lecture
Abstract
The development of Gigabit Ethernet could be viewed as the arrival of yet
another networking technology, adding to the existing pool of approaches to
"moving the bits''. However, every once in a while, something somewhat
ordinary happens which is extraordinarily important, a turning point in
history. Gigabit Ethernet is such a turning point. In this talk, I
elaborate on this theme. Gigabit Ethernet delivers the fatal blow to ATM as
a determining networking technology. In doing so, it defeats a whole strategy
being used to preserve a communication monopoly and a "pre-computing'' view of
communication. Moreover, it represents the real beginning of making bandwidth
a commodity and decentralizing the control of communication, making there be
effectively no control. In this step, it also represents the transition for
the technology from one whose limits are resources to the one where the limit
is, as seems inevitable with all technologies, trust.
Host: Michael Dertouzos
URL of this page:
http://www-eecs.mit.edu/AY96-97/events/50.html
Created: Apr 30, 1997
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Modified: Jun 24, 1997
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