David Boggs, a co-pioneer who helped in developing today's Ethernet has passed away at 71 due to heart failure. He died at the Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto, California last Feb. 19, according to Marcia Bush, his wife.
In the 1970s, David Boggs helped create Ethernet, the powerful etworking technology that connects PCs to printers, other devices and the internet in offices and homes. He has died at 71. https://t.co/4iZT45r329
— NYTimes Tech (@nytimestech) March 1, 2022
How Did David Boggs and His Companion Discover the Ethernet
According to The New York Times, Boggs graduated from Stanford University in the spring of 1973 before he started to be an intern in the Silicon Valley lab, particularly at Xerox PARC. There, he saw that the laboratory was creating a new computer for the people.
There was a time when he went to the basement one afternoon and witnessed that there was a person who appeared to be fidgeting a wire. It turns out that this new employee was Bob Metcalfe who will later be his partner in creating Ethernet.
Metcalfe was finding ways to relay the information from and to the computer inside the lab. Boggs noticed that Bob was struggling in sending electrical impulses through the wire so he offered some assistance.
From there, they became partners to develop the very first version of the Ethernet. Aside from this creation, Project Alto managed to develop other important inventions such as a mouse, laser printer, and even the word processor.
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Why Ethernet is Unique
In another article written by French news site News 24, many researchers from various institutions were already working with other collaborators to create Arpanet which would later become the popularly-known internet.
Compared to the internet's long-distance connection, the ethernet is a unique invention that allows users to link their nearby devices. It was in the 1990s that this invention became a standard in the industry. By then, many corporations and households used it for network building.
Marc Weber the Internet History Program director said that what we're using right now is probably the Ethernet.
Indeed, what Boggs and Metcalfe did was a huge technological breakthrough in the history of the internet.
The creation aligned with the former's interest in radio. They got the inspiration for the ethernet from the ALOHAnet which was originally established by the University of Hawaii.
Before going to Stanford to finish his master's and doctorate degrees, Boggs first graduated from Princeton University with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering.
He became interested in radios in the long run. That was the time when he began to build his own amateur radios.
The importance of ethernet can be traced up to these days. Despite the emergence of more advanced technologies, this invention was as useful in transmitting information from one device to another. Interestingly, it could now work in two ways: wired and wireless.
Truly, the Wi-Fi that we are using right now will not be possible without the ethernet.
To commemorate Mr. Bogg's feats, here's an article to check about Wi-Fi vs Ethernet, specifically on Intel vs Wi-Fi 6 comparison.
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Written by Joseph Henry
