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On September 30, 1980, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), Intel and Xerox jointly published the Ethernet Version 1.0 specification. That was not when Ethernet was first invented: IEEE dates its development at Xerox PARC to 1973. Nor was it literally several years before any Internet existed. The 1980 document instead marked a formal specification for a local network technology that would later carry Internet traffic.
What happened on September 30, 1980?
DEC, Intel and Xerox issued The Ethernet: A Local Area Network — Data Link Layer and Physical Layer Specifications, Version 1.0. The date appears on the jointly published specification’s title page and catalog record. The original Version 1.0 document describes Ethernet as a local area network and sets out specifications for its data-link and physical layers.
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The document’s preface says it “arises from an extensive collaborative effort of the three corporations,” while noting “several years of work at Xerox on an earlier prototype Ethernet.” It presents itself as a design reference, not an introductory tutorial. In other words, the date marks publication of a joint specification—not Ethernet’s first conception or first prototype.
Ethernet predates its 1980 specification
IEEE’s historical account dates Ethernet’s invention at Xerox PARC to 1973. IEEE’s Ethernet history therefore places the technology’s origin years before the DEC–Intel–Xerox document. The earlier Xerox prototype work mentioned in the specification is consistent with that timeline.
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It is useful to distinguish three milestones: Ethernet’s development at Xerox PARC, the joint publication of Version 1.0 in 1980, and the later use of Ethernet as a link for Internet Protocol traffic. Treating the 1980 publication date as Ethernet’s invention date collapses those separate events.
Was Ethernet defined before the Internet existed?
Only with a qualification. The Internet had precursors, and networking and Internet protocol development were already underway around 1980. The more precise point is that Ethernet Version 1.0 was published before the modern Internet became widespread, and Ethernet later provided a local networking foundation for computers using Internet protocols.
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The protocol connection is documented in stages. The IP specification that RFC 894 refers to was published in 1981. In 1984, RFC 894 specified how to transmit IP datagrams over Ethernet networks. The Internet Society describes the Internet as nascent during the 1980s, when local-area networks, personal computers and workstations were also developing. Its history of the Internet provides that broader context.
So the date is a landmark in the standardization of Ethernet, not evidence that it appeared before all Internet activity. Ethernet and Internet protocols emerged on overlapping timelines and were formally connected through IP-over-Ethernet documentation in the years that followed.
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