Article View: comp.protocols.misc
Article #149Re: What's the point of ATM?
From: Barry Margolin
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 20:13
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 20:13
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1292 bytes
In article <id.I94T.WPC@ferranti.com> peter@ferranti.com (peter da silva) writes:
>Well, I've been reading about how ATM is supposed to revolutionalise LANs,
>but I'm damned if I can figure out why. It looks like a good protocol for
>combining voice and data in a WAN, but what can it do for a LAN that a
>smarter bridge/router couldn't? Or is it just being used as a very fast
>brouter?
I believe that's all it is. ATM cells are very simple to parse; they're
small, they have a fixed size, and address fields and options are in known
locations. This permits the switching logic to be very simple, rather than
requiring a general purpose CPU. I think ATM cell switches are being
implemented with custom ASICs instead.
--
Barry Margolin
System Manager, Thinking Machines Corp.
barmar@think.com {uunet,harvard}!think!barmar
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!caen!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!barmar From: barmar@think.com (Barry Margolin) Newsgroups: comp.protocols.misc Subject: Re: What's the point of ATM? Date: 11 Sep 1992 20:13:36 GMT Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA Lines: 17 Distribution: na Message-ID: <18qulgINN5re@early-bird.think.com> References: <id.I94T.WPC@ferranti.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: telecaster.think.com