Is Asynchronous Transfer Mode, the networking technology of the future, already dead? Red Herring magazine a few months ago created a stir in Silicon Valley when its front cover majored on a prediction by Sun Microsystems Inc co-founder and technology guru, Andreas Bechtolsheim, that high speed Gigabit Ethernet switching would kill off ATM before it was scarcely out of its infancy. The story angered some in the network product industry, who complained about irresponsible reporting, especially among the press who picked up on the Red Herring story. But does Bechtolsheim really think that? Not according to Amit Shar, chief executive officer of ATM company ZeitNet Inc, who says that Bechtolsheim telephoned to apologize for the story, but said that as a proponent of Gigabit Ethernet, it was the best way to raise his profile. One assumes that Cisco Systems Inc, which paid $220 million in stock to buy Bechtolsheim’s company Granite in September, but is also in the Asynchronous Transfer Mode market, was not unduly influenced by the spin-doctoring.
