kurt@hi.unm.edu (Kurt Zeilenga) (09/19/88)
We are interested in upgrading our LAN to support distributed computation. What solutions are now available in the >80Mbps range? Thanks, Kurt
kwe@bu-cs.BU.EDU (kwe@bu-it.bu.edu (Kent W. England)) (09/20/88)
In article <23639@hi.unm.edu> kurt@hi.unm.edu (Kurt Zeilenga) writes: >We are interested in upgrading our LAN to support distributed >computation. What solutions are now available in the >80Mbps >range? > Thanks, Kurt Proteon sells a proprietary near-FDDI Pronet-80. It runs at 80 Mbps and supports the dual counter-rotating ring technology that has been incorporated into FDDI. Some vendors would say that they offer FDDI today. I would say they don't. But it will be here "soon". There are several proprietary high speed solutions that I would dub the "channel attached" solutions for plugging workstations into host channels. These are for big IBMs and Crays and Cybers primarily. I think there is a new HyperChannel and there is something called UltraNet and one or two more. These solutions are highly specialized and, I think, not suited for WAN or HS-LAN. But these workstations tax even FDDI, so these "channel extenders" have their place. If I were building a high speed LAN or WAN, I would see if I couldn't get some "dark fiber" from a service provider and build my own FDDI or Pronet network. We and many other campuses have Pronet-80 running on a dual ring. I would prefer dark fiber (ie, no service, just raw fiber from A to B) since the telcos have not yet proved they understand datagram networks. [just my opinion.] You might even be able to get conduit space and install your own fiber.