fair@ucbarpa.berkeley.edu (Erik E. Fair) (10/13/87)
Greg Chesson (designer of the UUCP "g" protocol and Version 7 UNIX's multiplexed files; now working for Silicon Graphics in Mountain View, CA) gave a paper at the Phoenix Summer USENIX Conference last June about a chip-set that he called a "protocol engine." The premise is that as networking hardware gets faster, you want to reduce your protocol implementations to silicon, to be able to use the bandwidth more effectively. His specific goal was to be able to keep up with a 100Mbit/sec FDDI network. Given that background, here is an item that appeared in this morning's San Francisco Chronicle, page C2: S I L I C O N G R A P H I C S S E L L S T E C H P R O J E C T Silicon Graphics Computer Systems Inc. of Mountain View said it has sold right to a year-old technology development project to Santa Barbara-based Protocol Engines Inc. The price was not disclosed. The so-called protocol engine technology includes a set of semiconductor chips that the company expects to help bring about much faster data communications networks. I'd appreciate it if someone at SGI (preferably Mr. Chesson himself) would comment on both the state of the project, and the reasons for the sale of the technology. Since I've never heard of Protocol Engines Inc. before, I surmise that this is actually a joint venture between SGI and some unknown number of other companies. Followups have been directed to comp.protocols.misc. submitted For Your Information, Erik E. Fair ucbvax!fair fair@ucbarpa.berkeley.edu
farber@udel.EDU (Dave Farber) (10/14/87)
In article <21255@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> fair@ucbarpa.berkeley.edu (Erik E. Fair) writes: > > S I L I C O N G R A P H I C S > S E L L S T E C H P R O J E C T > > Silicon Graphics Computer Systems Inc. of Mountain View > said it has sold right to a year-old technology development > project to Santa Barbara-based Protocol Engines Inc. The > price was not disclosed. The so-called protocol engine > technology includes a set of semiconductor chips that the > company expects to help bring about much faster data > communications networks. > >I'd appreciate it if someone at SGI (preferably Mr. Chesson himself) >would comment on both the state of the project, and the reasons for >the sale of the technology. Since I've never heard of Protocol Engines >Inc. before, I surmise that this is actually a joint venture between >SGI and some unknown number of other companies. > >Followups have been directed to comp.protocols.misc. > > submitted For Your Information, > > Erik E. Fair ucbvax!fair fair@ucbarpa.berkeley.edu The more interesting question is what happened to the open nature of the engine. Many times he said that the results were to be non propriertary. I wonder how many people are slightly unhappy with that change of pace. Sounds like SGI could not resist the temptation to sell it. ============================================================= David J. Farber University of Delaware Professor of Electrical Engineering and of Computer Science University of Delaware Department of Electrical Engineering Newark, De 19716 Office: 302-451-1163; Arpanet/CSNet: farber@udel.edu Dialcom(nsf): D.Farber Compuserve: 76010,104 Fax: 1-818-440-1742 Voice Mail: 1-302-740-1198 Mobile Telephone: 1-302-530-0898 ____________________________________________________________ Home RD 1 Box 279 Landenberg, Pa 19350 Home Phone: 215-274-8292 =============================================================
root@sbcs (Root) (10/15/87)
In article <21255@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>, fair@ucbarpa.berkeley.edu (Erik E. Fair) writes: > Greg Chesson (designer of the UUCP "g" protocol and Version 7 UNIX's > multiplexed files; now working for Silicon Graphics in Mountain > View, CA) gave a paper at the Phoenix Summer USENIX Conference last I remember seeing an article in one of the Unix rags in which Chesson stated that the protocol engine work was to be "public domain". Did the PD component go down the tubes once SGI noticed that it had a potential winner on their hands? > > I'd appreciate it if someone at SGI (preferably Mr. Chesson himself) > would comment on both the state of the project, and the reasons for > > Erik E. Fair ucbvax!fair fair@ucbarpa.berkeley.edu While we're on the subject, anyone know what has happened to Cheritons VMTP project? Rick Spanbauer SUNY/Stony Brook
greg@mojo.SGI.COM (Greg Chesson) (10/24/87)
to: Erik Fair, Dave Farber, and others:
The newspaper article quoted in this news group created some undeserved
speculation and masked the enthusiastic and public spirited support
that SGI has for the project and the concept. SGI has given over
protocol engine technology to Protocol Engines Inc for nominal
reimbursement of costs. It was not a significant financial
transaction. SGI engineers and people at other companies continue to
work on the project.
Protocol engine details - protocol, state machines, software emulation
- will be placed in the public domain as has been stated before. PEI
is modeled after other multi-company consortia such as the group that
standardized the SCSI bus. It is a corporate shell intended to achieve
the following:
1) provide a neutral repository for P-engine technology
2) fund chip fabrication
3) focus on standards activities
4) provide multiple sources for chips
5) push the technology beyond 100 Mbit/sec
Item (1) helps preserve the open nature of the design and to ensure
that there exists an organization dedicated to P-engine technology.
Item (2) should be obvious, since prototype production is more than I
can accomplish as an internal skunkworks. Item (4) means that PEI is
working with semiconductor houses to make P-engines become standard
products. The other items should be self-explanatory.
Greg Chesson Silicon Graphics 2011 Stierlin Road Mountain View,
Ca, 94043 (415)962-3496 {sun,pyramid,adobe,allegra,decwrl}!sgi!greg