Hot And Cold
Hot And Cold
Networks have to function everywhere—from the frigid Subarctic to the enclosed swelter of an engine room. X-Lab techs call this Thermonics temperature forcing device the “Elephant Arm,” and it can drive component temperatures down under -55˚C and up to over 250˚C. The idea is to focus an air stream onto the case of a device.
Techs needed extreme cooling when working on first-generation devices owing to their 17 W to 25 W power envelopes. The amount of heat generated under load required significant air conditioning to get the chip down to 0ºC. Pete would have demonstrated, but the machine is loud enough to require ear protection, and we didn’t have any on hand.
Ads
Share:
Must-see
Forum
Ads
Anyone else notice the Guy Fawkes mask in the background?
Anyone else notice the Guy Fawkes mask in the background?
It's existence is noted in the text for pic3, though I can only wonder why he has it. Is it good taste to associate yourself with 4chan and anon nowadays?
I am not sure if I ever saw the sign to the X-Lab when working at Jones Farm, but I did always wonder what went on in the labs that were similar to it. They kind of looked like IT work rooms to me, though it makes sense to have a need for oscilloscopes, soldering irons, networking tools, etc. for certain R&D projects.
In picture #4 (elephant arm)
Thanks Toms for this article.
Awesome article, I just finished me BSEE degree and now work in an network company where I help engineer servers so this is right up my alley!
This all started in 1990 with the creation of EtherExpress 16 by a handful of people led by a visionary leader, Steve Kassel.
It's existence is noted in the text for pic3, though I can only wonder why he has it. Is it good taste to associate yourself with 4chan and anon nowadays?
My guess is that it was just a fun-looking mask someone had brought to the lab, perhaps because they also enjoyed "V for Vendetta." (I did!) I'd wager that the X-Lab crew had no idea of the mask's fleeting association with 4chan's anti-Scientology protests, much less the religious motivations behind Fawkes's attempted regicide. Let's not accuse good people without cause.
Excellent article Tom (Willam actually). Nice reading, informative and geeky, just the way I like it. Amazing to see that they transfer 76TB in just one test (500,000,000*1518*100). Good job!
I love this article - thanks for this info.
Excellent article Tom (Willam actually). Nice reading, informative and geeky, just the way I like it. Amazing to see that they transfer 76TB in just one test (500,000,000*1518*100). Good job!
Yeah, I was stunned. I honestly expected some automated tests, maybe a few guys with scopes taking occasional signal readings -- NOTHING like what I saw. I'd assumed that a technology as old as Ethernet was pretty much a done deal and didn't require much hand holding at this point. I couldn't have been more wrong.
Does this have a PHY made by one of startups like Aquantia or Teranetics or is it a Broadcom PHY.
I think we will be running 10GbaseT LOM in most datacenters soon.
You can buy them off of newegg, they use Teranetics PHY's (Logo under the heatsink).
Can Toms quit with the galleries or add a '10 per page' mode? Clicking next and having the entire page reload 50 times and having to scroll down 50 times is stupid. It's like we're suck in 2001 web design practices.
The question is... where is QAM in networks? Why not? Is there anyone from Toms taking this question?
Fun, great, informative and geeky. Loved reading every second of it. A nod and a drink to those guys for sure! By the way, i have IE9 and i cant post comments with it, have to use firefox for it, just an FYI. Not a big deal as i use FF anyways, just testing IE9.
I don't know why but the picture of the engineer staring deeply into the glass struck an emotional tone with me.
Nice to see a TestEquity chamber in picture number 23!