What's the point of ATM?

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3 total messages Started by peter da silva Thu, 10 Sep 1992 20:57

#148

Author: peter da silva
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 20:57

10 lines
910 bytes

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?
-- 
Peter da Silva                                               `-_-'
Ferranti Intl. Ctls. Corp.                                    'U` 
Sugar Land, TX  77487-5012
+1 713 274 5180                                   Har du kramat din varg idag?

Re: What's the point of ATM?

#149

Author: Barry Margolin
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 20:13

17 lines
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

Re: What's the point of ATM?

#150

Author: Grenville Armitage
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 00:13

11 lines
903 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?

Throw the question at comp.dcom.cell-relay and cross your fingers
for some reasonable defences :-)

gja

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