IEEE Santa Clara Valley Section Honoring Ethernet's Unsung Heroes at Ethernet Technology Summit's 40th Anniversary of Ethernet Awards Ceremony

SANTA CLARA, CA, March 24, 2013

Silicon Valley's IEEE Santa Clara Valley (SCV) Section, the world's largest IEEE Section, will honor The Unsung Heroes of Ethernet Technology on April 3 during the 40th Anniversary of Ethernet Celebration at the Ethernet Technology Summit. The awards ceremony takes center stage from 6 - 6:30pm in the Conference Exhibit Hall at the Santa Clara Marriott.

Ethernet has a very long and rich history, and thousands of engineers have contributed to its growth and success over the past 40 years. The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) SCV Section considered numerous of these contributors, and decided to honor a group of engineers whose contributions go back to the very earliest days of Ethernet - and which also includes the long history of IEEE in the standardization process which has allowed Ethernet to be hugely successful worldwide. The honorees' names are not as well-known as many others in the industry, and they are thus all Unsung Heroes:

• David R. Boggs, who is honored for his work as a driving force in the creation of broad implementation of 3 MB Ethernet,

• Ronald C. Crane, who is honored for his pioneering work in successfully bringing initial 10MB Ethernet hardware to market,

• Tat C. Lam, who is honored for his foundational work in transceivers as an enabling element for 3 MB and early 10MB Ethernet, and

• Geoffrey O. Thompson, who is honored for his long term support and leadership of Ethernet standardization in the IEEE, the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
The four Unsung Heroes etched crystal awards include an image of Bob Metcalfe's original sketch of the Ethernet system.

The Ethernet Technology Summit will be presenting its own awards to the MEF Carrier Ethernet, the IEEE 802.3 Working Group and the Ethernet Alliance, as well as to some individuals who have made significant contributions to the success of Ethernet.

About the IEEE Santa Clara Valley (SCV) Section
The IEEE SCV Section encompasses Silicon Valley in the southern San Francisco Bay Area. Of the 400,000 worldwide IEEE members, SCV with its 13,000 members is the world's largest IEEE section. Representing most of IEEE's professional societies, SCV's 39 chapters, councils and affinity groups include students at four universities as well as industry professionals. Regular events scheduled by these chapters are available via e-GRID emails or directly at the e-GRID.net website. IEEE Milestones dedicated in the section honor flash memory, the integrated circuit, ARPANET/Internet, the SPICE circuit simulator, the RAMAC disk drive and the HP-35. A number of other seminal Silicon Valley inventions will be honored by milestones that are currently in process. Questions may be directed to Brian A. Berg at b.berg@ieee.org.

About the Ethernet Technology Summit
Ethernet Technology Summit focuses on the use of Ethernet throughout the networking space. This includes the emergence of 10-Gigabit Ethernet as a key LAN technology on the desktop and in data centers. It also covers the 40-Gigabit and 100-Gigabit Ethernet standards and standards efforts beyond 100GbE. Furthermore, it includes the use of Ethernet as a carrier backbone and transport method, as well as in storage applications. Other topics of interest include virtualization, cloud computing, and Data Center Ethernet. The Summit offers keynotes, seminars, forums, tutorials, an expert table session, exhibits, and receptions with the aim of presenting expert speakers and encouraging networking and the flow of information. http://www.ethernetsummit.com