A timeline showing development of the Ethernet and ever-higher bandwidth.
1973: Robert Metcalfe invents Ethernet at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center and work begins on the development of a LAN topology bus.
1976: Xerox builds an Ethernet-based LAN network to connect more than 100 PCs.
1980: Digital Equipment, Intel and Xerox release a standard for 10Mbps Ethernet.
1983: IEEE 802.3 10Base-5 — or thick Ethernet — the original Ethernet standard, is approved.
1986: IEEE 802.3 10Base-2 — or thin Ethernet — is approved.
1991: IEEE 802.3 10Base-T — Ethernet that runs over ordinary, twisted-pair wire — is approved.
1995: IEEE 802.3 100Base-T standard is approved, and Fast Ethernet products begin to hit the market.
1998: IEEE 802.3ac standard for Gigabit Ethernet over fiber is approved.
1999: IEEE 802.3ab standard for Gigabit Ethernet over copper is approved, and products start entering the market.
2000: IEEE 802.3ad standard for link aggregation is approved.
2002: IEEE 802.3ae standard for 10 Gigabit Ethernet is approved.
June 2006: IEEE 802.3an standard for 10 Gigabit Ethernet over copper is approved.
July 2006: IEEE Higher Speed Study Group is formed to examine next versions of Ethernet, including 40G and 100G.
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