LattisNet was a family of computer networking hardware and software products built and sold by SynOptics Communications (also rebranded by

Western Digital Western Digital Corporation is an American data storage company headquartered in San Jose, California. Established in 1970, the company is one of the world's largest manufacturers of hard disk drives (HDDs). History 1970s Western Digital ...

) during the 1980s. Examples were the 1000, 2500 and 3000 series of LattisHub network hubs. LattisNet was the first implementation of 10 Megabits per second

local area network A local area network (LAN) is a computer network that interconnects computers within a limited area such as a residence, campus, or building, and has its network equipment and interconnects locally managed. LANs facilitate the distribution of da ...

ing over

unshielded twisted pair Twisted pair cabling is a type of communications cable in which two conductors of a single Electronic circuit, circuit are twisted together for the purposes of improving electromagnetic compatibility. Compared to a Single-ended signaling, sin ...

wiring in a

star topology A star network is an implementation of a spoke–hub distribution paradigm in computer networks. In a star network, every host is connected to a central hub. In its simplest form, one central hub acts as a conduit to transmit messages. The ...

Ethernet variants

During the early 1980s most networks used

coaxial cable Coaxial cable, or coax (pronounced ), is a type of electrical cable consisting of an inner Electrical conductor, conductor surrounded by a concentric conducting Electromagnetic shielding, shield, with the two separated by a dielectric (Insulat ...

as the primary form of premises cabling in

Ethernet Ethernet ( ) is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...

implementations. In 1985

SynOptics SynOptics Communications, Inc., was a Santa Clara, California-based early computer network equipment vendor from 1985 until 1994. SynOptics popularized the concept of the modular Ethernet hub and high-speed Ethernet networking over copper twisted ...

shipped its first hub for

fiber optics An optical fiber, or optical fibre, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at ...

and shielded twisted pair. SynOptics' co-founder, Engineer Ronald V. Schmidt, had experimented with a fiber-optic variant of Ethernet called Fibernet II while working at

Xerox PARC Future Concepts division (formerly Palo Alto Research Center, PARC and Xerox PARC) is a research and development company in Palo Alto, California. It was founded in 1969 by Jacob E. "Jack" Goldman, chief scientist of Xerox Corporation, as a div ...

, where Ethernet had been invented. In January 1987 SynOptics announced intentions to manufacture equipment supporting 10 megabits/sec data transfer rates over unshielded twisted pair, telephone wire. In August 1987 New York based LAN Systems, Inc. completed the equipment testing and praised SynOptics for successfully deploying a 10 Mbit/s network that supported workstations up to 330 feet from the wiring closet, because of their careful control of EMI and RFI.

Novell Novell, Inc. () was an American software and services company headquartered in Provo, Utah, that existed from 1980 until 2014. Its most significant product was the multi-platform network operating system known as NetWare. Novell technolog ...

reported that the LattisNet equipment performed better than RG-58U coaxial cable. This same year HP proposed a study group be formed to look into standardizing Ethernet on telephone wires. SynOptics' investor, Menlo Ventures explained its position on joining the IEEE for standardization. In 1990 the

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...

issued an

Ethernet over twisted pair Ethernet over twisted-pair technologies use twisted-pair cables for the physical layer of an Ethernet computer network. They are a subset of all Ethernet physical layers. Early Ethernet used various grades of coaxial cable, but in 1984, Star ...

standard known for transmitting 10 Mbit/s, or 10BASE-T (802.3i).

Ethernet compatibility

Of the SynOptics hubs, the 2500 series was only compatible with LattisNet twisted-pair Ethernet; the 1000 and 3000 series featured modules for LattisNet and standard 10BASE-T. In the 1000 series, the 505 modules are LattisNet and the 508 modules are 10BASE-T.

References

External links

* (Advertisement) * ;Ethernet / 10BASE-T / LattisNet discussions: * A method to identify the type of 3000-series modules * * * {{Ethernet Networking hardware Ethernet