The Cambridge Ring was an experimental local area network architecture developed at the Cambridge University Computer Laboratory in the mid-late 1970s and early 1980s. It used a ring topology with a theoretical limit of 255 nodes (though such a large number would have badly affected performance), around which cycled a fixed number of packets. Free packets would be "loaded" with data by a machine wishing to send, marked as received by the destination machine, and "unloaded" on return to the sender; thus in principle there could be as many simultaneous senders as packets. The network ran over twin twisted-pair cabling (plus a fibre-optic section).
People associated with the project include Andy Hopper, David Wheeler, Maurice Wilkes, and Roger Needham.
In 2002 the Cambridge University Computer Laboratory launched a graduate society called the Cambridge Computer Lab Ring named after the Cambridge Ring.
Famous quotes containing the words cambridge and/or ring:
“the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls
are unbeautiful and have comfortable minds”
—E.E. (Edward Estlin)
“When the merry bells ring round,
And the jocund rebecks sound
To many a youth and many a maid,
Dancing in the chequered shade;
And young and old come forth to play
On a sunshine holiday,”
—John Milton (1608–1674)