On Apr 23, 19:48, Tony Duell wrote:
> > >AFAIK it is not backwards-compatible, at least in the sense that no
> > >10Mbps ethernet controller supports the 3Mbps data rate (at least,
I've
> > >never seen one that does).
> >
> > Oh, I mean as in being able to plug a 3Mb device into a 10Mb network.
>
> ALmost certainly not. Remember there were no 'hubs' back then -- ethernet
> was implemented using relatively dumb transceivers (certainly without any
> form of data buffering or rate conversion) linked by coaxial cable. A
> 3Mbps system is not going to be able to handle 10Mbps data on the cable.
A hub is just a repeater, it doesn't do anything to the data stream, and it
wouldn't make any difference. But repeaters were part of the 3Mb/s spec,
and Xerox did have some.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
Received on Tue Apr 24 2001 - 02:26:42 BST