Reed's views, was [e2e] Cannara's views

[David P. Reed]

At 04:10 PM 4/15/01 -0400, J. Noel Chiappa wrote:


>     > From: "David P. Reed" <dpreed at reed.com>
>
>     > You're right that we knew about Ethernet's 48-bit addressing.
>
>Actually, no we didn't!
>
>10M Ethernet came along somewhat later, and I distinctly recall trying to
>figure out how on earth to fit 48 bits into a 24-bit (the "rest" field
>back in the pre-A/B/C days) sack! The result was ARP, which Dave Plummer
>and I put together in '82.

Maybe you didn't by the time you got involved, Noel, but I and the early 
TCP/IP design team had access to and discussed the 48-bit proposed Ethernet 
MAC address standard at the time, and so did the Xerox folks involved in 
the early IP design (Dalal and Schoch, in particular).  In particular, I 
recall Bill Lynch explaining to me in 1977 that it was practical and cheap 
to assign unique 48-bit addresses to interfaces (his "proof" was that you'd 
read the serial number of a $1 bill and then burn it, so the cost was 
bounded to $1).

- David
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