Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bu-cs!kwe
From: kwe@bu-cs.BU.EDU (kwe@bu-it.bu.edu (Kent W. England))
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.lans
Subject: Re: Info wanted on twisted pair lans
Message-ID: <17872@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Date: 22 Dec 87 22:27:52 GMT
References: <251@syntrex.uucp>
Reply-To: kwe@bu-it.bu.edu (Kent England)
Organization: Boston Univ. Information Tech. Dept.
Lines: 38
Keywords: phone wire, ethernet
Summary: UTP Enet is coming

In article <251@syntrex.uucp> roytar@syntrex.UUCP (Roy Tarantino) writes:
>  Starlan (not really in the running)

	As someone else mentioned HP is selling a product that is
commonly referred to as 10M StarLAN, borrowing the term from the AT&T
product and technology.
	The good news is that 10M StarLAN (or UTP Enet, Unshielded
Twisted Pair Ethernet) has an excellent chance of becoming an 802
standard.  This technology is really StarLAN speeded up and refined.
You have a transceiver with an AUI interface to your host (or the xcvr
is mounted internally) and a RJ interface to your wall.  In your
wiring closet is a "concentrator" (really a UTP multiport repeater).
In many respects this technology, if successful, could become a
replacement for the thin coax architecture.  The wonderful thing about
this technology is that in many cases the wire is already there and
it's the same wire you already use for async terminals and telephones.
We have a hundred years experience with this stuff.
	But standards are important. You want to be able to buy
workstations from your favorite vendor and plug them into anybody's
concentrator and make them work.  I wouldn't buy anybody's product now
if they couldn't tell me they would make it conform to the standard
(if it doesn't already).
	H-P, Ungermann-Bass, Synoptics, Wang, Micom-Interlan and
possibly others are already in the standards process with 802.  It's
anybody's guess how long it will take to have a standard, but it seems
that some of these vendors are confident they know what the technical
specs will be.
	I am looking forward to getting this stuff and running all my
Ethernet workstations on it (when the price is right).
-- 
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