IBM Corp has given up hope of Token Ring ever being more than a useful number two to Ethernet, and for one of its more innovative offerings, it is to the Xerox Corp protocol that it is turning. According to US PC Week, National Semiconductor Corp and IBM Corp are promising a local networking technology […]
IBM Corp has given up hope of Token Ring ever being more than a useful number two to Ethernet, and for one of its more innovative offerings, it is to the Xerox Corp protocol that it is turning. According to US PC Week, National Semiconductor Corp and IBM Corp are promising a local networking technology next year that could dramatically change the network landscape. Called 16Mbps isochronous Ethernet or isoEnet, the technology will enable administrators use existing 10Base-T hubs to carry real-time, two-way videoconferencing applications such as Apple Computer Inc’s QuickTime and IBM’s Ultimedia Person-to-Person. The hub will also have hooks to Fibre Distributed Data Interface II, a future standard that similarly combines packet switching and circuit switching. The technology will be reviewed in March by the IEEE 802.9 Integrated Services Local Area Network committee, which is trying to integrate the Ethernet standard with Integrated Services Digital Network services. After that, users will be able to upgrade their installations by buying new hub module boards and and personal computer adaptors, priced at twice the rate of existing 10Base-T boards. Prototypes are expected to be out late in 1993, the paper suggests.
