David Boggs

David Reeves Boggs (born 1950) is an electrical and radio engineer from the United States who developed early prototypes of Internet protocols, file servers, gateways, network interface cards[1] and, along with Robert Metcalfe and others, co-invented Ethernet, the most popular family of technologies for local area computer networks.[2]

This article is about the co-inventor of Ethernet. For the stock car driver, see David Ray Boggs.

David Boggs
Born	1950 United States
Citizenship	United States
Alma mater	Princeton University (B.S.E.) Stanford University (Ph.D.)
Known for	Co-invention of Ethernet
Awards	IEEE Computer Society Technical Achievement Award (1988) ACM Fellow, AAAS Fellow
Scientific career
Fields	Computer networking
Institutions	Xerox PARC

Biography

Boggs graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in Washington, D.C. in 1968 and subsequently attended Princeton University, from where he graduated with a B.S.E. in electrical engineering in 1972. He then joined the Xerox PARC research staff, where he met Robert Metcalfe while the latter was debugging an Interface Message Processor interface for the PARC systems group.[3][4] Since Boggs had considerable experience as an amateur radio operator, he recognized similarities between Metcalfe's theories and radio broadcasting technologies and joined his project. According to The Economist, "the two would co-invent Ethernet, with Mr Metcalfe generating the ideas and Mr Boggs figuring out how to build the system."[2]

Throughout 1973, they built several Ethernet interfaces for the Xerox Alto pioneering personal computer. On March 31, 1975, Xerox filed a patent application listing Metcalfe, Boggs, Chuck Thacker and Butler Lampson as inventors.[5] In 1976, after 18 months in the writing, they published "Ethernet: Distributed Packet Switching for Local Computer Networks", Ethernet's seminal paper.[3][6] It was reprinted in a special 25th anniversary issue of the Communications of the ACM.[7] He produced a slide for a talk at the June 1976 National Computer Conference from a Metcalfe sketch of Ethernet terminology that was widely reproduced.[8] The original prototype circuit is now in the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution.[9]

While at Xerox, Boggs also attended graduate school at Stanford University, where he received both a master's degree in 1973 and a Ph.D. degree in 1982 in electrical engineering.[10] His dissertation was "Internet Broadcasting".[11] The concept was extended to IP multicasting by Steve Deering, also at Stanford.[12] He received the IEEE Computer Society technical achievement award in 1988,[13] and is a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery.[1] Boggs was involved in developing the PARC Universal Packet protocol architecture, which was developed about the same time as TCP/IP.[14]

After leaving Xerox, Boggs worked at the Digital Equipment Corporation Western Research Laboratory (DECWRL), on the "Titan" project.[15] Boggs co-founded LAN Media Corporation (LMC) with Ron Crane and worked as a consultant in the Silicon Valley area.[16] LMC was acquired by SBE Incorporated in July 2000.[17] SBE was acquired by Neonode in 2007.[18]

References

1. "ACM Fellows Citation / David R Boggs". Association for Computing Machinery. Retrieved April 6, 2011.
2. The Economist (September 4, 2003). "Case History: Out of the Ether". Retrieved April 6, 2011.
3. W. Sweet (June 1996). "Profile: Robert Metcalfe". IEEE Spectrum. 33 (6): 48–49, 52–55. doi:10.1109/6.499949.
4. Wende Vynorney Feller (2007). "Boggs, David R.". In Benjamin F. Shearer (ed.). Home front heroes: a biographical dictionary of Americans during wartime. 1. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 101–103. ISBN 978-0-313-33421-4.
5. U.S. Patent 4,063,220 "Multipoint data communication system (with collision detection)" Filing date March 31, 1975, issued December 13, 1977
6. Robert M. Metcalfe; David R. Boggs (July 1976). "Ethernet: Distributed Packet Switching for Local Computer Networks". Communications of the ACM. 19 (5): 395–405. doi:10.1145/360248.360253.
7. Robert M. Metcalfe; David R. Boggs (January 1983). "Ethernet: Distributed Packet Switching for Local Computer Networks". Communications of the ACM - Special 25th Anniversary Issue. 26 (1): 90–95. doi:10.1145/357980.358015.
8. "The Ethernet Diagram". IEEE standard 802.3 web site. October 21, 2003. Retrieved April 7, 2011.
9. "Ethernet Prototype Circuit Board". National Museum of American History collections object 1992.0566.01. Retrieved April 6, 2011.
10. Stanford University (August 1, 1999). "Computer Science Department alumni newsletter". Retrieved April 6, 2011.
11. David R. Boggs (1982). Internet Broadcasting. Stanford University. Ph.D. Thesis
12. Stephen E. Deering; David R. Cheriton (May 1990). "Multicast routing in datagram internetworks and extended LANs". ACM Transactions on Computer Systems. 8 (2): 85–110. doi:10.1145/78952.78953.
13. IEEE Computer Society. "Past recipients for Technical Achievement Award". Retrieved April 6, 2011.
14. David R. Boggs; John F. Shoch; Edward A. Taft; Robert M. Metcalfe (April 1980). "Pup: An Internetwork Architecture". IEEE Transactions on Communications. 28 (4): 612–624. doi:10.1109/TCOM.1980.1094684. S2CID 62684407.
15. "MultiTitan: Four Architecture Papers:MultiTitan Local & Global Bus Definition and Timing" (PDF). Technical Report 87/8. Digital Equipment Corporation Western Research Laboratory. April 7, 1988. Retrieved April 6, 2011.
16. "Team: Board of Directors". Missing Link Electronics web site. Archived from the original on May 22, 2011. Retrieved April 6, 2011.
17. "SBE Inc. Acquires LAN Media Corporation". news release. San Ramon, California. July 14, 2000. Retrieved April 6, 2011.
18. "SBE and Neonode Announce Execution of Merger Agreement". news release. San Ramon, California: Business Wire. January 22, 2007. Retrieved April 6, 2011.

External links

• Yogen Dalal. "Ethernet History". blog. Retrieved April 7, 2011.