Ethernet Alliance - History

History

In previous Ethernet technology iterations, an alliance was formed to support the adoption of that new technology into the market. The Ethernet Alliance was preceded by the Fast Ethernet Alliance, the Gigabit Ethernet Alliance (GEA), the 10 Gigabit Ethernet Alliance (10 GEA), and the Ethernet in the First Mile Alliance (EFMA). These alliances would dissolve a few years after the completion of the standards effort they supported. Unfortunately, this was often long before the technology would reach volume adoption and there was seldom support for smaller Ethernet standards projects. Brad Booth noticed that upon the dissolution of the 10GEA that there was still a strong desire by the end users and media for information about 10 Gigabit Ethernet and some of the new technology being created for 10 Gigabit Ethernet, primarily 10GBASE-T. He worked with others in the industry and the standards bodies to create an alliance that would exist as long as Ethernet technology existed. The Ethernet Alliance was formed with the goal to support IEEE 802 Ethernet standards, but later expanded its scope to include all standards that rely upon or are dependent upon IEEE 802 Ethernet standards. With the expanded charter and the formation of the HSE and Carrier Ethernet subcommittees, the Road to 100G Alliance merged with the Ethernet Alliance on December 31, 2008.

There were eighteen founding members of the Ethernet Alliance: 3Com (now HP), ADC (now Tyco Electronics), Agere Systems (now LSI), Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (now AppliedMicro), Aquantia, Broadcom, Force10 Networks (now Dell), Foundry Networks (now Brocade), Intel, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Pioneer Corporation, Quake Technologies (now AppliedMicro), Samsung, Sun Microsystems (now Oracle Corporation), Tehuti Networks, Tyco Electronics, the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL), and Xilinx.