[rescue] ATMmmming

[Joshua D Boyd]

On Sat, Sep 28, 2002 at 09:05:58PM -0400, dave at cca.org wrote:
> jdboyd at cs.millersville.edu writes:
> 
> >53bytes is prime, which is pretty stupid.  Ideally it would a multiple
> >of 2, 4 or 8 bytes.  But, also stupid is that the payload on that 53byte
> >packet is 48 bytes.  Why 48 bytes?  Because certain countries couldn't
> >decide between 64bytes and 32 byte payloads.  Reportedly, telecom people
> >wanted 32bytes and datacom people wanted 64bytes.  So the committee
> >compromised at 48 bytes, which in either case (datacom or telecom) is
> >worse than the other options.
> 
> >From what I've read, it was entirely designed for telecom, with
> US telecom wanting 64 bits and Europe wanting 32. Averaging the 
> two to come up with 48 seems like a far worse decision than just
> flipping a coin.

Yes, but the US (and japan, I think) argued for 64 for datacom
usage, while europe only cared about telecom useage. 

And I'm not sure that the telecom companies from either side had much to
do with it, but I could be wrong.

-- 
Joshua D. Boyd