Where's Our Terabit Ethernet?

carusoj writes "Five years ago, we were talking about using Terabit Ethernet in 2008. Those plans have been pushed back a bit, but Ethernet inventor Bob Metcalfe this week is starting to throw around a new date for Terabit Ethernet: 2015. He's also suggesting that this be done in a non-standard way, at least at first, saying it's an opportunity to "break loose from the stranglehold of standards and move into some fun new technologies.""

For those of you playing at home, a TB is

[Anonymous Coward]

For those of you playing at home, a TB is a lot more than you can ever use in a million years...unless you link off the pirate bay, then it's not quite enough.

Re:Wednesday?

[sm62704]

Um, they just made an announcement that they reached 16Tbits/sec on Wednesday, sheesh. Use the bandwidth you have for something useful.

Like porn?

Re:Who needs it?

[Anonymous Coward]

I suppose you also think 640k of RAM is enough for anyone?

Re:Who needs it?

[kvezach]

Other than the LHC, who the hells needs that kind of bandwidth?

Evil overlords who want to build their own Borg collective? If 10^10 bits per second bandwidth is required (comparable to the bandwidth of the bundle connecting the brain hemispheres), then you get 100 drones per wire. (On the other hand, wired Borg would be really limited -- for obvious reasons.)

Re:2015

[milsoRgen]

Yes, and I suppose we'll have flying cars by then too?

And Windows will be smaller, faster and more stable!

Re:Who needs it?

[Shados]

Yeah yeah, who cares about all that abstract stuff. How many LIBRAIRIES OF CONGRESS is it?!

Re:Wednesday?

[milsoRgen]

Like porn?

Pfff, 16Tbits/s of porn? Hardly. Only LOLcat [icanhascheezburger.com] pictures need that kind of bandwidth.

Re:but but but

[plague3106]

The slashdot summary just about nailed it.

So, are we at the start of the end times now?

Re:Who needs it?

[TeknoHog]

One terrabit per second is roughly:

81 lunabits per second.

Re:Stranglehold?

[houstonbofh]

I agree. After all, this worked so well for the American cell phone network.

Progress!

[DragonWriter]

Five years ago, we were talking about using Terabit Ethernet in 2008. Those plans have been pushed back a bit, but Ethernet inventor Bob Metcalfe this week is starting to throw around a new date for Terabit Ethernet: 2015.

So, 5 years ago, Tb-E was 5 years away, and now its 7 years away. So by 2015, it should be about 10 years away, and by 2025 it should be about 14 years away, etc.

Just got back

[Anonymous Coward]

I just realized that slashdot doesn't have a way to post pictures in the forums. I'm surprised by this since it's a common feature at many other sites. Is there a suggestion box or I just email Cmdrtaco about it?

Re:Stranglehold?

[Scootin159]

that should be an quick & easy transition, just like IPv6, right?

Re:Stranglehold?

[Anonymous Coward]

Blu-net, HD TCP/IP or Betacom?

I know which one I'm rooting for!

We had a flying car in 1979

[Anonymous Coward]

We had a flying car [wikipedia.org] way back in 1979. [thedukesofhazzard.net] It was orange and it's horn played "Dixie" every time it flew. It didn't fly very far, and the landings were a bit rough, but what the heck.... it *was* a flying car ;-)

Re:but but but

[glittalogik]

Without standards, where would we be?

I don't know, but we probably wouldn't be getting laid there.

Re:Progress!

[Hugonz]

So, 5 years ago, Tb-E was 5 years away, and now its 7 years away. So by 2015, it should be about 10 years away, and by 2025 it should be about 14 years away, etc.

Talk about exponential backoff...