jas@monk.proteon.com.UUCP (01/29/87)
We're not secretive, Proteon's address block is 00-00-93 for 802.3 and 802.4, and 00-00-C9 for 802.5 and slotted ring. The IEEE assigns addresses in 24-bit chunks. You are free to set or clear the multicast bit, but may not modify the other 23 high-order bits. You are expected to use all 2^24 addresses before you can have another block. You are to be very careful not to duplicate addresses. They charge, in excess of $1000, for a block. The reason for the two presentations is that they assign them in NETWORK (MAC) bit order, so the "absolute value" depends on the bit order of the MAC layer of your network. (You thought IP people had problems coping with byte order!) IBM is so consistently big-indian that their network is backwards from 802.3 at the MAC level.