Information / Communication & Networks

Ethernet and local networks

Robert Metcalfe's Ethernet (1973) let all computers in a building share one cable and became the standard wired network.

Robert Metcalfe wrote the Ethernet memo at Xerox PARC in May 1973, inspired by the ALOHAnet radio network in Hawaii, to connect the lab's Alto computers and laser printers. The 10 Mbit/s standard followed in 1980 and became IEEE 802.3 in 1983. Faster descendants of Ethernet still link the servers in data centers and the offices and homes around them.