| From: | Mark Imbriaco <mark@**.ODU.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: Ahhhhhhh replay |
| Date: | Fri, 15 Apr 1994 00:40:42 -0400 |
> >>>>> On Thu, 14 Apr 1994 23:20:16 EDT, Mark Imbriaco
> >>>>> <mark@**.ODU.EDU> said:
>
> MI> Yes, ATM stands for Aysnchronus Transfer Mode.
> MI> It is synonymous to Ethernet, only using fiber instead
> MI> of Ethernet cable. We have a beta setup here, and it is
> MI> the extremely low-end version, only 150 Megabit. :-)
> MI> The current maximum is, I believe, 1 Gigabit.
>
> That just isn't true- Ethernet is quite a bit different, and
> there's nothing about ATM that requires it to run on Fiber.
> On the contrary, one of the nice things about it is that
> depending on your needs, all sorts of physical types can be
> arranged, with different levels of bandwidth, and it's
> better suited to doing fast, multimedia-type transfers than
> Ethernet is. Ethernet bogs down at the high end because of
> collisions between packets.
>
> All this is based on year-old memories of PC Week articles,
> but I feel right. :)
You're right, of course. I was just using Ethernet as an
example of having machines connected to a hub, and then to
each other, only in this case, the hub is an ATM switch.
Just the first analogy that popped into my head, because I deal
with our ethernet much more often than with the ATM. Also,
ATM is not like ethernet since it is point to point, rather than
ethernet that broadcasts to everyone. There are a bunch of
other differences, but I don't think this is the time or place
for a technical discussion of ATM... :-)
Mark
