The Voices of Ethernet

The Voices of Ethernet

The Ethernet Alliance is preserving Ethernet’s historical records through a collection of spoken records with the real people behind Ethernet’s story, sharing engaging personal accounts of pivotal events and major milestones that may have otherwise been forgotten or remain widely unknown.

Episodes

August 10, 2023 34 mins
Rouzbeh Yassini-Fard, Ph.D. is an entrepreneur, philanthropist and the Father of the Cable Modem. In this interview with Ethernet Alliance chair Peter Jones for The Voices of Ethernet oral history archive, Rouzbeh reflects on how the lessons of Ethernet, specifically the focus on low cost, interoperability, and open standardization, impacted his work in creating the cable modem.
Mark as Played
Paul Nikolich has been chair of the IEEE 802 Working Group since 2001. In this interview with Ethernet Alliance chair Peter Jones for The Voices of Ethernet oral history archive, Nikolich describes the importance of standards development and how it is an opportunity to take an idea and enable it to be deployed widely on a global scale with Ethernet as a prime example. 

Mark as Played
Leading the IEEE 802.1 Working Group for 14 years, Tony Jeffree played a crucial role in editing numerous standards. In this part 2 interview, Jeffree continues his discussion on the importance of standards work with Ethernet Alliance chair Peter Jones for The Voices of Ethernet oral history archive.
Mark as Played
Tony Jeffree led the IEEE 802.1 Working Group for 14 years, where he played a major role in editing numerous standards. Jeffree describes the early days of working in the evolving standards work of IEEE 802 in this part 1 interview with Ethernet Alliance chair Peter Jones for The Voices of Ethernet oral history archive.
Mark as Played
Ethernet Networking and LAN/MAN Standards Expert

“Ethernet has been created by lots of contributors who all probably saw what was happening from a different point of view,” David Cunningham said. “We’ve all worked on different parts of the standard at different times.”

Cunningham’s personal point of view is unusually comprehensive. In more than two decades of work in local and metro area network standardizati...
Mark as Played
An important aspect of Ethernet’s beginnings is that it was not simply a clever idea—it also was a necessary one.

Computer designer, architect and researcher, Gordon Bell had been with Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in the early 1960s where his achievements included major contributions to architecting the company’s Programmed Data Processor (PDP) line of minicomputers. He left in 1966 to join the computer-science...
Mark as Played
Waves are still rippling from the splashes that Rich Seifert made over the course of his decades in creation and evolution of Ethernet. In 1979 and ’80, while he was with Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), Seifert worked alongside engineers from Intel and Xerox to cowrite, “The Ethernet, A Local Area Network. Data Link Layer and Physical Layer Specifications,” the seminal document which greatly informed the initial IEEE Proj...
Mark as Played
Robert Garner has 41 years of experience in management, architecture and design engineering across product development and research at Xerox Systems Development, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), Sun Microsystems, Brocade Communications and IBM Research. From that remarkable career, he has preserved a slew of stories and an impressive collection of relics, and he’s thrilled to share them.

Garner was...
Mark as Played
Geoff Thompson has been part of the IEEE 803.3 Ethernet Working Group since 1983, and he chaired it from 1993 until 2002, a period in which standards innovations such as 1000-BASE-T and Gigabit Ethernet “effectively cemented Ethernet as the top dog in wired LANs (local area networks).”

But his connection with the technology and its inventors goes even further back. “I was a very, very early customer of Ethernet.” At X...
Mark as Played
Robert M. Grow calls himself “a latecomer to Ethernet,” but, in fact, he has been involved in the technology for its entire existence. He was immersed in the design of the first local area networks (LANs) in the 1970s, and, even during his university years, Grow “got involved looking at some of the more advanced and more futuristic looks at technology and things that would be happening,” he tells Ethernet Alliance chair Peter ...
Mark as Played
In 1980, when IEEE started Project 802 to standardize local area networks (LANs), Gary Robinson was part of the “DIX-group” which submitted the “Blue Book” carrier-sense multiple access with collision detection (CSMA/CD) specification as a candidate. Robinson ended up being one of the catalysts in developing the flexibility of the IEEE 802 standards family and working group which has proven to be key to its long-term viability...
Mark as Played
On the brink of what he calls his “sixth career, whatever that’s going to turn out to be,” Robert M. Metcalfe shares some of the earliest stories from the technology’s history. Regarded as the “Father of Ethernet,” Metcalfe is credited with co-inventing Ethernet while working at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in 1973.
Mark as Played

Popular Podcasts

    The Podium: An NBC Olympic and Paralympic podcast. Join us for insider coverage during the intense competition at the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games. In the run-up to the Opening Ceremony, we’ll bring you deep into the stories and events that have you know and those you'll be hard-pressed to forget.

    2. In The Village

    In The Village will take you into the most exclusive areas of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games to explore the daily life of athletes, complete with all the funny, mundane and unexpected things you learn off the field of play. Join Elizabeth Beisel as she sits down with Olympians each day in Paris.

    3. iHeartOlympics: The Latest

    Listen to the latest news from the 2024 Olympics.

    4. Paris Summer Games

    The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris are here and have everyone talking. iHeartPodcasts is buzzing with content in honor of the 33rd Olympic Games and you can follow Paris Summer Games to stay up to date on all things Olympics. We’re bringing you episodes from a variety of iHeartPodcast shows to help you keep up with the action. Follow Paris Summer Games so you don’t miss any coverage of the 2024 Olympic Games, and if you like what you hear, be sure to follow each Podcast in the feed for more great content from iHeartPodcasts.

    5. Dateline NBC

    Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.

Advertise With Us
Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2024 iHeartMedia, Inc.