Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site fortune.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!vaxine!wjh12!genrad!decvax!decwrl!amd70!fortune!rpw3
From: rpw3@fortune.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.lan
Subject: Re: cheapernet? - (nf)
Message-ID: <3635@fortune.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 19-Jun-84 23:03:51 EDT
Article-I.D.: fortune.3635
Posted: Tue Jun 19 23:03:51 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 21-Jun-84 01:35:53 EDT
Sender: notes@fortune.UUCP
Organization: Fortune Systems, Redwood City, CA
Lines: 36

#R:amd70:-472500:fortune:5900025:000:1650
fortune!rpw3    Jun 19 19:47:00 1984

1. 3Com's RG-58/U version is called "Thin Ethernet", not "cheapernet".

2. Someone will surely attempt to trademark "cheapernet", but they will
   won't succeed. The generic term "cheapernet" has been used in public
   by me and by others around me for at least five (5) years to mean any
   form of Ethernet repeater-compatible network that was "cheaper" (that
   is, the packet format and the bit rate were the same, but the logic
   levels, encoding, and collision-detection method could differ).

3. We have also used the term "cheapo net" to mean a cheapernet that used
   inexpensive plastic fiber optics (such as the H-P "Snap-In" link or
   the Molex stuff) from the station to a repeater/multiplexer.
   (get it? cheap-o-net! *gag* ;-} )

   (By comparison, Codenol's Ethernet-compatible fibernet is "expensiv-o-net"?)

4. Some people (AMD? Intel?) have also been using cheapernet to mean a slower
   bit rate, such as 1Mb/s, but I don't buy that usage.

There are many variations on cheapernets, from (nearly) full electrical
compatibility and interoperability (such as 3Com Thin Ethernet), to
transceiver-cable multiplexers (DEC's DELNI or TCL's MultiStation), to
other schemes (such as TTL "Ethernet down the backplane"). If we want to
widen the term "cheapernet" to exclude Ethernet repeater compatibility,
then maybe we should reserve "cheaprenet" (with the British/Continental "-re-")
to continue to mean the 10Mb/s repeaterable version. (Maybe CheaprEnet??)

Rob Warnock

UUCP:	{ihnp4,ucbvax!amd70,hpda,harpo,sri-unix,allegra}!fortune!rpw3
DDD:	(415)595-8444
USPS:	Fortune Systems Corp, 101 Twin Dolphin Drive, Redwood City, CA 94065