Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Mobile Toasters (was ToasterNet..)
Message-ID: <1988Dec15.195027.3696@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <881212-182513-5931@Xerox>
Date: Thu, 15 Dec 88 19:50:27 GMT

In article <881212-182513-5931@Xerox> JLarson.pa@XEROX.COM writes:
>There is some danger though for a distributed system algorithm which
>absolutely depend son a unique ID.  We have seen cases in the Xerox
>Internet where 48-bit host numbers were not unique as intended.
>(Apparently PROM burners can get stuck on the same number once in a while.)

Also, production-line people are not used to the idea that each system
must be *different* -- they are very much organized around exact duplication
of hardware, PROMs included.  There are tales of this causing trouble at
several companies making Ethernet gear.
-- 
"God willing, we will return." |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
-Eugene Cernan, the Moon, 1972 | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu