FDDI II has been dreadfully neglected of late. In fact given the hype surrounding Asynchronous Transfer Mode to the desktop, you could be forgiven for thinking that FDDI II had been killed off completely. But no – the standard designed for carrying isochronous traffic (video, speech and the like) to the desktop has been plugging along gradually until it has reached the point where all that’s missing is the SMT II Station Management standard. Indeed, all the parts that need to be implemented in silicon have already been finished, according to National Semiconductor Corp’s application manager for advanced communications, Karen Parker. FDDI II is an extension to the original FDDI protocol that allows for delivery of isochronous traffic by enabling the network to reserve regular slots for services that require time-dependent data delivery. Despite the fact that NatSemi has pledged support for Asynchronous Transfer Mode and Ms Parker personally believes in it, she says that ATM feels as if it is at the same stage that FDDI was at six years ago. While manufacturers are starting to talk about their implementations of the cell-switched technology, Ms Parker points at the multitude of higher layer protocol questions that remain. Despite its support for the technology, the company is not being overly hasty in announcing products. However Ms Parker says that it will be demonstrating non-productised FDDI 2 technology at the Comdex Fall show, which is set for Las Vegas later this month.
