November 13, 2024

This Week in Amateur Radio

North America's Premiere Amateur Radio News Magazine

Ethernet co-inventor David Boggs dies at 71

Pioneering Xerox PARC computer researcher David Boggs has died at 71, The New York Times has reported. He was best known for co-inventing the Ethernet PC connection standard used to link PCs in close proximity to other computers, printers and the internet — over both wired and wireless connections.

The Xerox PARC research lab in Palo Alto developed much of the PC tech we tech for granted today like the graphic user interface, mouse and word processor. Boggs joined the team in 1973, and started working with fellow researcher Bob Metcalfe on a system to send information to and from the lab’s computer.

In about two years, they had designed the first version of Ethernet, a link that could transmit data at 2.94 Mbps over a coaxial cable. It borrowed in part from a wireless networking system developed at the University of Hawaii called ALOHAnet, tapping into Boggs’ passion for HAM radio. “He was the perfect partner for me,” Metcalfe told the NYT. “I was more of a concept artist, and he was a build-the-hardware-in-the-back-room engineer.”

Read more – Yahoo!: https://news.yahoo.com/ethernet-co-inventor-david-boggs-dies-at-71-110524422.html