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10 Gigabit Ethernet Alliance dissolved

Opinion
Sep 23, 20032 mins
Networking

* The 10 Gigabit Ethernet Alliance decides to call it a day

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Every once in a long while, I point my browser to the Web site of the 10 Gigabit Ethernet Alliance just to see if there is anything new there. Turns out there isn’t anything new there now, and there won’t ever be again.

The site has an Aug. 28 message posted on the home page indicating that the alliance “has now been legally dissolved,” since it “has successfully completed its corporate objectives.”

The alliance was set up to help organize vendors’ efforts for developing 10 Gigabit Ethernet, in both the technology itself and in the market. It was largely a marketing organization, but it managed to pass along helpful information for those considering 10 Gigabit.

For example, there are white papers on the site reviewing 10 Gigabit Ethernet and just Gigabit Ethernet. And last year at this time the group was helping to put together a 10 Gig user conference.

The alliance was actually the successor to the similarly named Gigabit Ethernet Alliance, which performed the same functions for Gigabit Ethernet back when that technology was still up-and-coming. In fact, the old alliance’s URL, http://www.gigabit-ethernet.org, redirects to the new alliance’s http://www.10gea.org.

However, this resource is going away, according to the message on the site. The site will be around through year-end, so be sure to download any white papers you might be interested in before then.

The not-for-profit group was officially dissolved on July 28, and the note says, “In accordance with the 10GEA Bylaws and the California Nonprofit Corporation Law, all of the assets of 10 GEA remaining after payment of the corporation’s liabilities were distributed to tax exempt, nonprofit organizations: the IEEE Foundation, the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab, and the United Way of America.”